gthened and she more
importantly featured than ever, it was decidedly inopportune, for no one
could help connecting her name with the affair.

For a long time she and her brother had scarcely been upon speaking
terms. During Joe's frequent lapses from industry he had been prone to
"touch" his sister for the wherewithal to supply his various wants.
When, finally, she grew tired and refused to be "touched," he rebuked
her for withholding that which, save for his help, she would never have
been able to make. This went on until they were almost entirely
estranged. He was wont to say that "now his sister was up in the world,
she had got the big head," and she to retort that her brother "wanted to
use her for a 'soft thing.'"

From the time that she went on the stage she had begun to live her own
life, a life in which the chief aim was the possession of good clothes
and the ability to attract the attention which she had learned to crave.
The greatest sign of interest she showed in her brother's affair was, at
first, to offer her mother money to secure a lawyer. But when Joe
confessed all, she consoled herself with the reflection that perhaps it
was for the best, and kept her money in her pocket with a sense of
satisfaction. She was getting to be so very much more Joe's sister. She
did not go to see her brother. She was afraid it might make her nervous
while she was in the city, and she went on the road with her company
before he was taken away.

Miss Kitty Hamilton had to be very careful about her nerves and her
health. She had had experiences, and her voice was not as good as it
used to be, and her beauty had to be aided by cosmetics. So she went
away from New York, and only read of all that happened when some one
called her attention to it in the papers.

Berry Hamilton in his Southern prison knew nothing of all this, for no
letters had passed between him and his family for more than two years.
The very cruelty of destiny defeated itself in this and was kind.

XVI

SKAGGS'S THEORY

There was, perhaps, more depth to Mr. Skaggs than most people gave him
credit for having. However it may be, when he got an idea into his head,
whether it were insane or otherwise, he had a decidedly tenacious way of
holding to it. Sadness had been disposed to laugh at him when he
announced that Joe's drunken story of his father's troubles had given
him an idea. But it was, nevertheless, true, and that idea had stayed
with him cl