mer hearth. It consisted of a cascade of paper
shavings with a frontage of paper roses and tinsel foliage, and was
remarkable not only for its own sake but because Mrs Bowldler had chosen
to display the roses upside down. But though Cai stared at it hard, he
observed it not.

For some minutes his mind refused to work beyond the catastrophe.
"If _it_ had happened--if 'Bias had indeed lost all his money. . . ."

He arose, lit a pipe, and dropped back into his chair.

It may be that the tobacco clarified his brain. . . . Of a sudden the
child's words recurred and wrote themselves upon it, and stood out, as
if traced in fire--"_He went to master for your sake, because you was
his friend and he had such a belief in you._"

Ay, that was true, and in a flash it lit up a new pathway, down which he
followed the thought in the child's mind only to lose it and stand
aghast at his own reflections.

''Bias went to Rogers through his belief in me.'

--'I did not encourage him. On the other hand, I said nothing to hinder
him.'

--'Yet, afterwards and in practice, I did encourage him, going to Rogers
with him and discussing our investments together.'

--'In a dozen investments we acted as partners.'

--'He was my friend, and in those days entirely open with me. He let me
read all his character. I knew him to be strict in paying his debts,
uneasy if he owed a sixpence, yet careless in details of business, and
trustful as a child.'

--'Then this quarrel sprang up between us, and I let him go his way.
I had no right to do that, having led him so far. In a sense, he has
gone on trusting me; that is, he has gone on trusting Rogers for my
sake. To be quit of responsibility, I should have given him fair
warning.

--'I ought to have gone to him and said, "Look here; Rogers is a friend
of mine, and known to me from childhood. There's honesty in him, but
'tis like streaks in bacon; and for some reason or another he chooses
that all his dealin's with me shall keep to the honest streak. If you
ask me how I know this, 'twouldn't be easy to answer: I _do_ know it,
and I trust him as I'd trust myself, a'most. But Rogers isn't a man for
everyone's money, and there's many as don't scruple to call him a knave.
He hasn't known you from a child, and you haven't known him. You'll be
safe in putting it that what he's done honest for you he's done as my
friend--"'

Here Cai was seized by a new apprehension.

--'Ay, and--the devil