, but what I'm leaving behind.
I'll be paying me own score on the other side; but here 'tis others
will be paying it for me."

His burning eyes fixed themselves on Milbanke's.

"But, my dear old friend----"

"Don't talk to me, James! Don't waste words on me. I'm broke inside and
out. I'm smashed. I'm done for." A spasm of pain, mental and physical,
twisted his features. "The weak, worthless egotist has come to the end
of his rope!" He tried to laugh.

Milbanke, in deep apprehension, laid his hand lightly on his shoulder.

"Denis," he pleaded, "don't talk like this! Don't torture yourself like
this!"

Asshlin groaned.

"'Tis involuntary!" he cried. "'Tis wrung from me. Every time they come
into the room--every time I see the tears in their eyes--every time
they kiss me, I tell you I taste hell."

"Who?"

"The children. My children." Another spasm crossed his face. "You once
told me I was not fit to have children, James--and you were right. By
God, you were right!"

"Denis, I refuse to listen. I insist--I----"

"Don't bother yourself! 'Tisn't of my damned health I'm thinking."

"Then what is it? What is troubling you?"

"The children--the children. I've been a blackguard, James--a
blackguard." He moved his head sharply, regardless of the agony the
movement caused. "I tell you I don't care what's before myself. I've
always been a reckless fool. But 'tis the children--the children."

"What of the children?"

A sound of mockery and despair escaped Asshlin.

"Ah, you may well ask!" he said--"you may well ask! 'Tis the question
I've been putting to myself every hour since they laid me here. You
know the world, James. You know what the world will be to two pretty,
penniless girls. And they're so unconscious of it all! That's the sting
of it. They're so unconscious of it all! They care for me; they cling
to me as if I were a good man, and in five years' time they may be
cursing the hour they were born." A fresh groan was wrung from him.

A look of apprehension crossed Milbanke's face.

"Oh no, Denis!" he exclaimed quickly. "No. Things can't be as bad as
that. Your suffering has told upon your nerves. Things can't be as bad
as that."

"They are worse. I tell you these two children will face life without a
penny."

"No, no! You exaggerate. Why, even if you were to die they would still
have the place. The place must be worth something."

"Ah, if I could only drug my conscience with that thought! But I
c