"you don't mean
that?"

"I'm sure of it."

Our feelings during the remainder of that day may be more easily
imagined than expressed. If there was one person in the world more than
another we would have wished not to hear what had been said, it was
Hawkesbury. Thanks to my folly and meanness, he had known far too much
as it was, before, and trouble had fallen on Jack in consequence. Now,
if Jack's surmise was true, to what use might he not put the knowledge
just obtained?

No one quite understood Hawkesbury. But I knew enough of him to see
that jealousy of my friend Smith mixed up with all the motives for his
conduct at Hawk Street. His tone of superiority, his favouring one
clerk above another, his efforts to assert his influence over me had all
been part of a purpose to triumph over Jack Smith. And yet, in spite of
it all, Jack had held on his way, rising meanwhile daily in favour and
confidence with his employers, and even with some of his formerly
hostile fellow-clerks.

But now, with this new secret in his hand, Hawkesbury once more had my
friend in his power, and how he would use it there was no knowing.

All that day he was particularly bland and condescending in his manner
to me, and particularly pompous and exacting in his manner to Jack, and
this, more than anything else, convinced me the latter was right in his
suspicion.

Our discussion as we walked home that night was dismal enough. The
brighter prospects which had seemed to dawn on Jack and his father
appeared somehow suddenly clouded, and a sense of trouble hung over both
our minds.

"One thing is certain," said Jack, "I must tell the partners everything
now."

"Perhaps you are right--if there is any chance of his telling them. But
he could surely hardly act so shamefully."

"It may be too late, even now," said Jack. "You know, when I was taken
on at Hawk Street, and they asked me about my father, I said simply he
was abroad. I've thought since it was hardly straightforward, and yet
it didn't seem necessary to tell them all about it."

"Certainly not. Why should your prospects be ruined because your
father--"

"Because my father," said Jack, taking me up quietly, "had lost his?
That's what I thought. But perhaps they will think differently. At any
rate, I will tell them."

"If you do," said I, "and they take it kindly, as I expect they will, I
don't see what more harm he can do you."

"Unless," said Jack, "he thinks it his