t that I would
be willing to buy him off. I received a letter from him saying that he
was coming. It was at a crisis in my own affairs, and his arrival
might conceivably bring trouble, and even disgrace, upon some whom I
was especially bound to shield from anything of the kind. I took steps
to insure that any evil which might come should fall on me only, and
that"--here he turned and looked at the prisoner--"was the cause of
conduct upon my part which has been too harshly judged. My only motive
was to screen those who were dear to me from any possible connection
with scandal or disgrace. That scandal and disgrace would come with my
brother was only to say that what had been would be again.

"My brother arrived himself one night not very long after my receipt of
the letter. I was sitting in my study after the servants had gone to
bed, when I heard a footstep upon the gravel outside, and an instant
later I saw his face looking in at me through the window. He was a
clean-shaven man like myself, and the resemblance between us was still
so great that, for an instant, I thought it was my own reflection in
the glass. He had a dark patch over his eye, but our features were
absolutely the same. Then he smiled in a sardonic way which had been a
trick of his from his boyhood, and I knew that he was the same brother
who had driven me from my native land, and brought disgrace upon what
had been an honourable name. I went to the door and I admitted him.
That would be about ten o'clock that night.

"When he came into the glare of the lamp, I saw at once that he had
fallen upon very evil days. He had walked from Liverpool, and he was
tired and ill. I was quite shocked by the expression upon his face.
My medical knowledge told me that there was some serious internal
malady. He had been drinking also, and his face was bruised as the
result of a scuffle which he had had with some sailors. It was to
cover his injured eye that he wore this patch, which he removed when he
entered the room. He was himself dressed in a pea-jacket and flannel
shirt, and his feet were bursting through his boots. But his poverty
had only made him more savagely vindictive towards me. His hatred rose
to the height of a mania. I had been rolling in money in England,
according to his account, while he had been starving in South America.
I cannot describe to you the threats which he uttered or the insults
which he poured upon me. My impression is, t