“I am not myself this morning, but I want to talk to some one. I have taken you for my sister. I will have no secrets from you. This is the anniversary of my brother’s death. You know I had one, and lost him.” Louie nodded, and Miss Percy continued: “Let me tell you about him, and you will know better why I always wear black, and am sometimes so sad. He was all the world to me, for we were orphans, and wards of Fred’s father. Although my twin, he seemed younger than myself, with his fair, boyish face, and I watched over him as if I had been his mother. Somehow and somewhere—possibly at Monte Carlo, where we spent some weeks, he acquired a taste for play. Perhaps it was born with him and he could not help it, although he tried at times. It was a mania, stronger than his will, and nothing could win him from it. I am afraid he was weak in some respects, for he fancied himself an expert, able to cope with the most experienced gamblers, and success turned his head. Some years ago he made a trip West, promising me before he left that he would not touch a card. But he broke his word; and at Butte, in Montana, he fell in with a professional, who tempted him to play, letting him win at first, they said, so as to lure him on, and then wiping him out. I believe that is the term they used when telling me of it. He lost thousands and then took his own life—shot himself through the temple—my fair-faced brother whom I idolized. That was six years ago, when the dreadful news flashed across the wires to Washington, ‘Brant Percy shot himself early this morning. We await orders.’ “I could have died for him, I think, and in my first bitter anguish I cursed the man who lured him to ruin. Cursed him and his. I don’t know who he was, except that his name was _Tom Crary_, and he was well known in that region as an accomplished gambler. Where he is now, if still living and carrying on his nefarious work, I do not know, but I have learned to pray for him since the bitterness is gone, and I hope my curse has not followed him.” “It has! It has!” Louie cried, stretching out her hands for something to keep herself from falling, everything around her was so dark, and there was such a buzzing in her head and nausea at her stomach. Miss Percy was alarmed at the whiteness of her face and the strained look in her eyes, and put out her hand to steady her as she saw her falling in her chair.