k added, his voice
trembling: "his brain has softened."

I stared at him speechlessly: I knew by instinct that I had not heard
the worst.

"The moment I saw you," pursued Jack, "my first thought was, 'I hope he
knows the whole story.' You heard nothing of our failure?"

"Not a word."

"The firm of Holt & Strong suspended payment last December," said he
with a deep flush rising to his temples. "There were two companies, you
know: I was only in Holt & Co. Strong was in Europe. My poor father's
weakness did not display itself openly, but took the form of mad secret
speculations. It is a long story, Floyd. There were no bounds to his
schemes, in which he involved not only himself, but others. He was
president of the savings bank too, you may remember. The troubles began
with the failure of a house in New York to which we owed something. He
was pressed: there was a whisper of something wrong, and of course there
came a run on the bank. I was not here. My father sent for me: when I
came I found a riotous mob outside the closed doors, and he lay
insensible in the bank parlor. He never recovered any real
consciousness, and for weeks we worked in the dark. There was much to
bear. I could have endured every loss without a murmur, had it not been
for the cruelty of some of his smallest creditors."

He stopped for a few minutes, but when I would have spoken he motioned
me to be silent, and presently went on: "There are men to-day who
pretend to believe that my father's mental state is as perfect as
ever--that he is merely shielding himself from punishment by shamming
imbecility. Ah, well! let me continue. Just at this juncture one of our
buildings was destroyed by fire. The insurance policy had lapsed, and he
had failed to renew it. The factory was packed with goods ready for
shipment. The loss to Holt & Strong was a quarter of a million of
dollars." He stopped again, and I saw him moisten his dry lips. "The
chief creditors," he resumed, "were honorable men. By the first of March
we had agreed upon terms of adjustment. My mother gave up all she had.
My sisters are angry with me that I allowed her to strip the house of
everything that had possessed a moneyed value, and think it shameful
that I despoiled her of her jewels. But such things did not count with
my mother and me. I kept the Duchess--nothing else." He smiled sombrely
as he pulled out his watch. It was the little silver one he had used
when we played marbles together.