“I beg your pardon,” Clarice replied, more abashed than she had ever thought it possible for herself to be before a girl like Elithe. “It was not directed. It was in his bag with his present for me, bought in Chicago, and which I did not deserve. It touched me very closely. Poor Jack.” There were tears in her eyes as she continued: “There was no address on the letter, and, seeing my name so often I read it. My brother loved you. Did you return it?” Before Elithe could reply her aunt interposed: “You have no right to ask such personal questions. It is none of your business whether she loved your brother or not. But I will answer for her. She did _not_, and never could. That he cared for her is evident. Poor fellow. I never liked him much. I think better of him now in the light of what my niece has told me and what she will tell you.” She turned to Elithe, who began at the miners’ camp and the night spent with Jack, dwelling at some length upon what he said in his delirium of Mignon. At this point Clarice put both hands to her face and the tears trickled through her fingers, while Elithe went on with her narrative of Jack’s life in Samona, his efforts to reform and the pledge which he drew up himself and carried in his pocket. “He spoke of that in his letter, and said he tore it up after what happened in Chicago,” Clarice said, interrupting her. Elithe bowed and went on to tell of his intimacy in her father’s family, his interest in her, and his giving her the ring when he left the car in Helena. She did not speak of his note; that was not necessary. She only added: “I never saw him again; never knew he was not Mr. Pennington till he was dying. You think he was bad. Everybody thinks so. In some respects he was, but he was trying to do better; he _was_ doing better. He was susceptible to good influences and kind treatment, and tried to come up to one’s standard of him. Treat him like a dog, and he was a dog; treat him like a man, and he was a man. He was respected in Samona and among the miners. There will be mourning in Deep Gulch when they hear he is dead, and in Samona, too. Why he fell the last time and came here in the condition he did I do not know. Some influence he could not withstand was brought to bear upon him.”