He stood there dumb, knowing that he could say nothing to her, knowing that he dare not plead for himself. Indeed, he did not think of himself at that time; he found himself dimly wondering what was to become of 'Linda when this last sum of money was exhausted. He had never foreseen such a crisis as this. The fashion in which he had supplied Brian and his father with funds, beginning as it had done in his boyhood, had grown to be such a natural thing that he had ceased to be surprised at it, or, indeed, to think about it very much at all. He put himself clearly and quietly outside the question; his heart only ached desperately for this old woman who was destined to be left alone again after all these years, despite all her goodness to him. He stood still for a few moments watching her, and then turned quietly and went toward the door. She called after him: "Have you nothing to say to me?" He came back slowly. "Oh, my dear," he said in a broken voice, "what shall I say to you? To thank you for all that you've done, all that I seem so shamefully to have misused, would sound like a mockery. After all, all that you say is good and fair and just; I have lied to you and deceived you and broken my bargain; I can't say anything more than that. Deep as my gratitude is, I wish--O God, how much I wish!--that you had left me as you found me when I was a little child. I suppose I wasn't fit or strong enough to take the position you meant for me." "I suppose not. And you won't tell me what you've done with all this money?" "No, I can't tell you that," he replied. Before him again he seemed to see the face of 'Linda--'Linda, whose fool's paradise he had created, and who lived in it contentedly, knowing nothing of what it was founded upon. In his own steadfast, single-hearted way he knew that that secret must be kept, and kept to the end for her sake. "Well, if you won't, you won't," said the old woman, with a sudden return of her hardness of manner. "I suppose it doesn't matter now. But, since you refuse all explanations, so I refuse to have anything to do with you further, or with any trouble you have created. You have borrowed this money under the belief that you were my heir, but you've reckoned without me. Here, to-night, under the very roof where I first gave you all your honours, I strip them from you. Those who lent you the money may get it back as they can; I'll encourage no such business as that. I'll warrant they'll pull long faces when they find they've been misled. Yes, I strip everything from you. The boy I loved, the Prince Charming I worshipped, is dead--never has been at all. Another--a creature I don't know and don't understand, a stranger to me--has taken his place. Prince Charming has gone--God help me!--forever."