"He only lived three months. I had always wanted a son. You cannot fancy how proud I was of him." Hardress laughed here. "And she told you it was Charteris! in the moment of death when--when you were threatening me, she told you it was Charteris!" "It is different when you are dying. You see--Gillian knew that eternity depended on what she said to me then--" He spoke as with difficulty, and he kept licking at restless lips. "Yes,--she did believe that. And she told you--!" I comprehended how Gillian Hardress had loved me, and my shame was such that now it was the mere brute will to live which held me. But it held me, none the less. Besides, I saw the least unpleasant solution. "I suppose I can't blame you," I said,--"for if she told you, why, of course--" Then I barked out: "He was here a moment ago. You must have come around one corner, in fact, just as he turned the other. You will find him at Willoughby Hall, I suppose. He said he was going straight home." For I knew that Charteris was at King's College, a mile away from Willoughby Hall; and, I assured myself, there would be ample time to warn him. Only how much must now depend upon the diverting qualities of Lucian! For should the Samosatan flag in interest, John would be leaving the College presently; and there is but one street in Fairhaven. 4 I had my hand upon the garden-gate, and Hardress had just turned the corner below, going toward Cambridge Street, when Bettie came upon the porch. "Well," she said, "and who's your fat friend, Mr. Sheridan?" "I can't stop now, dear. I forgot to tell John about something which is rather important--" "Gracious!" Bettie Hamlyn said; "that sounds like shooting. Why, it is shooting, isn't it?" "Yes," said I. "--Quite as though the Monnachins and the Massawomeks and all the other jaw-breakers were attacking Fairhaven as they used to do on alternate Thursdays, and affording both of us an excellent opportunity to get nicely scalped in time for dinner. So I don't mind confessing that it was against precisely such an emergency I declined to turn out an elaborate suite of hair; and now I expect the world at large to acknowledge that I acted very sensibly." "It is much more likely to be some drunken country-man on his monthly spree--" I was reflecting while Bettie talked nonsense that there had been no less than four shots. I was wondering whom the last was for. It would be much pleasanter, all around, if Hardress had sent it into his own disordered brain. Yes, certainly, three bullets ought amply to account for an unprepared and unarmed and puny Charteris.... So I said: "Well, I suppose my business with John must wait for a while. Besides, Bettie, you are such a dear in that get-up. And if you will come down into the garden at once, I will explain a few of my reasons for advancing the assertion."