ping me within her arm, "in staking your
son's inheritance upon a throw of the dice."

My father started as though he had been struck across the face, but he
was too far gone in anger to listen to the voice of reason. Indeed, I
have always found that the more a man deserves rebuke, the less likely is
he to take it quietly.

"Come here, Tom," he said to me, and when I hesitated, added in a sterner
tone, "come here, sir, I say."

I had no choice but to go to him, nor did my mother seek to hold me back.
He caught me by the arms and bent until his face was close to mine.

"You are to promise me two things, Tom," he said, and I perceived that
his breath was heavy with the fumes of wine. "One is that you are never
to claim your inheritance of Riverview until it is offered to you freely
by them that now possess it. Do you promise me that?"

"Yes," I faltered. "I promise you, sir."

"Good!" he said. "And the other is that you will pay my debts of honor
after I am dead, if they be not paid before. Promise me that also, Tom."

His eyes were on mine, and I could do nothing but obey, even had I
thought of resisting.

"I promise that also, sir," I said.

"Very well," and he retained his grasp on my arms yet a moment.
"Remember, Tom, that a gentleman never breaks his word. It is his most
priceless possession, the thing which above all others makes him a
gentleman."

He dropped his hands and turned away into the house. A moment later,
from the refuge of my mother's arms, I heard him heavily mounting the
stairs to his room on the floor above. My mother said never a word, but
she covered my face with kisses, and I felt that she was crying. She held
me for a time upon her lap, gazing out across the river as before, and
when I raised my hand and caressed her cheek, smiled down upon me sadly.
She kissed me again as she put me to bed, and the last thing I saw before
drifting away into the land of dreams was her sweet face bending over me.
Had I known that it was the last time I was to see it so,--the last time
those tender hands were to draw the covers close about me,--I should not
have closed my eyes in such content.

CHAPTER V

THE SECRET OF A HEART

Late that night I was awakened by the slamming of doors and hurried
footsteps in the hall and up and down the stairs. I sat up in bed, and as
I listened intently, heard frightened whispering without my door. It rose
and died away and rose again, broken by stifled sobbi