In 1896, for no apparent reason, a great change came over
him."

"In 1896!"

"That was the year."

Alan bent forward, his heart throbbing in his throat. "That was also
the year when I was brought and left with the Weltons in Kansas," he
said.

Sherrill did not speak for a moment. "I thought," he said finally, "it
must have been about that time; but you did not tell my daughter the
exact date."

"What kind of change came over him that year?" Alan asked.

Sherrill gazed down at the rug, then at Alan, then past him. "A change
in his way of living," he replied. "The Corvet line of boats went on,
expanded; interests were acquired in other lines; and Corvet and those
allied with him swiftly grew rich. But in all this great development,
for which Corvet's genius and ability had laid the foundation, Corvet
himself ceased to take active part. I do not mean that he formally
retired; he retained his control of the business, but he very seldom
went to the office and, except for occasional violent, almost pettish
interference in the affairs of the company, he left it in the hands of
others. He took into partnership, about a year later, Henry Spearman,
a young man who had been merely a mate on one of his ships. This
proved subsequently to have been a good business move, for Spearman has
tremendous energy, daring, and enterprise; and no doubt Corvet had
recognized these qualities in him before others did. But at the time
it excited considerable comment. It marked, certainly, the beginning
of Corvet's withdrawal from active management. Since then he has been
ostensibly and publicly the head of the concern, but he has left the
management almost entirely to Spearman. The personal change in Corvet
at that time is harder for me to describe to you."

Sherrill halted, his eyes dark with thought, his lips, pressed closely
together; Alan waited.

"When I saw Corvet again, in the summer of '96--I had been South during
the latter part of the winter and East through the spring--I was
impressed by the vague but, to me, alarming change in him. I was
reminded, I recall, of a friend I had had in college who had thought he
was in perfect health and had gone to an examiner for life insurance
and had been refused, and was trying to deny to himself and others that
anything could be the matter. But with Corvet I knew the trouble was
not physical. The next year his wife left him."

"The year of--?" Alan asked.

"That was 1897.