"When you struck me that night I--deserved it. I was half crazy, I think--with what I had done--with a more material but quite as ruinous situation developing here in town--with domestic complications--never mind where all the fault lay--it was demoralising me. Do you think that I am not perfectly aware that I stand very much alone among men? Do you suppose that I am not aware of my personal unpopularity as far as men are concerned? I have never had an intimate friend--except Delancy Grandcourt. And I've treated him like a beast. There's something wrong about me; there always has been." He slaked his thirst again; his hand shook so that he nearly dropped the glass: "Which is preliminary," he went on, "to saying to you that no matter what I said in access of rage, I never doubted that your encounter with--Miss Quest--was an accident. I never doubted that your motive in coming to me was generous. God knows why I said what I did say. You struck me; and you were justified.... And that clears up that!" "Dysart," said the other, "you don't have to tell me these things." "Would you rather not have heard them?" Duane thought a moment. "I would rather have heard them, I believe." "Then may I go on?" "Is there anything more to explain between us?" "No.... But I would like to say something--in my own behalf. Not that it matters to you--or to any man, perhaps, except my father. I would like to say it, Mallett." "Very well." "Then; I prefer that you should believe I am not a crook. Not that it matters to you; but I prefer that you do not believe it.... You have read enough in the papers to know what I mean. I'm telling you now what I have never uttered to any man; and I haven't the slightest fear you will repeat it or use it in any manner to my undoing. It is this: "The men with whom I was unwise enough to become partially identified are marked for destruction by the Clearing House Committee and by the Federal Government. I know it; others know it. Which means the ruthless elimination of anything doubtful which in future might possibly compromise the financial stability of this city. "It is a brutal programme; the policy they are pursuing is bitterly unjust. Innocent and guilty alike are going to suffer; I never in all my life consciously did a crooked thing in business; and yet I say to you now that these people are bent on my destruction; that they mean to force us to close the doors of the Algonquin; that they are planning the ruin of every corporation, every company, every bank, every enterprise with which I am connected, merely because they have decreed the financial death of Moebus and Klawber!" He made a trembling gesture with clenched hand, and leaned farther forward: