“I pitied him, he was so young and fair, so like a boy, and I offered to return half I had won from him. He repulsed me with angry hauteur, and left the room, saying he was not a sneak, or whining coward; but there was a look in his eyes I did not like, and it haunted me all night, making me resolve to find him the next morning and insist upon his taking back more than half I had gained. But when morning came and I inquired for him, he was dead, with a bullet in his brain. His body was sent to his friends, and I made a vow never to gamble that way again, and I never have, nor have I been able to forget that boyish face whose dead eyes, half-open, seemed to look at me so reproachfully. “His money was a curse to me, but I tried to make you and poor mother happy with it. I built this house, and opened a bank and passed for a highly respectable man. But the demon of gain by gambling was with me still. I told you once of my career in the bank which ended in ruin. I cannot rehearse it again. I am getting tired and nearing the end. Something has been sapping my life for a long time, and when the crisis came, and took my good name away, I went down with it and shall never rise again, nor do I wish to. I could not face a people with whom I have stood so high. I am dying; and, when I am gone, what will you and your mother do? Is there anything between you and Herbert White?” “No, nothing,” Louie answered, in a whisper. She could not at once speak aloud, for she was seeing the face of the dead boy, whose half-open eyes had looked reproach at her father as hers had looked at times while listening to his story. She had once said that if she knew their money came by gambling she would smash the furniture and burn the house. She did know it now, but she must keep silent and never let even her mother know what she knew of her father’s past. He had not told her the name of the young man, and she did not ask him. She didn’t care, her heart was so full of pain and humiliation at what she had heard. It was worse than she supposed, and she was glad that everything was over between herself and Herbert. It must have been ended now. She could never marry any one, knowing what she did. Her life work must be to make some amends by paying the creditors in Merivale. When her father asked again, “What will you do when I am gone?” she cried, “Oh, father, you must not die, and leave mother and me alone! I have promised to pay all you owe, and I can do it.” “How?” he asked, and she replied by telling him what had passed between herself and Miss Percy. “Percy,” he repeated, sitting up in bed with a strength he had not shown in days. “You mean the lady who was at the Whites’ a year ago, and wanted to take you abroad?” “Yes, father,” she answered; and, with a laugh which made Louie’s blood curdle, it was so unnatural, Mr. Grey fell back upon his pillow, whispering words she could not understand.