my son; but this was not enough.
Being lonesome in my great house, which was as much too large for me as
my fortune was, I had taken a child to replace the boy I had lost.
Remembering the cold blood running in the veins of those nearest me, I
chose a boy from alien stock and, for a while, knew contentment again.
But, as he developed and my affections strengthened, the possibility of
all my money going his way roused my brothers and sisters from the
complacency they had enjoyed since their road to fortune had been
secured by my son's death, and one day--can you recall it, Hudson? can
you recall it, Lemuel?--the boy was brought in from the mill and laid at
my feet, dead! He had stumbled amongst the great belts, but whose was
the voice which had startled him with a sudden 'Halloo!' Can you say,
Luke? Can you say, John? I can say in whose ear it was whispered that
three, if not more of you, were seen moving among the machinery that
fatal morning.

"Again, God's providence was said to have visited my house; and again
_ye_ were my heirs."

"Stop there!" broke in the harsh voice of Luke, who was gradually
growing livid under his long gray locks.

"Lies! lies!" shrieked Hector, gathering courage from his brother.

"Cut it all and give us the drink!" snarled one of the younger men, who
was less under the effect of liquor than the rest.

But a trembling voice muttered "Hush!" and the lawyer, whose eye had
grown steely under these comments, took advantage of the sudden silence
which had followed this last objurgation and went steadily on.

"Some men would have made a will and denounced you. I made a will, but
did not denounce you. _I_ am no breaker of oaths. More than this, I
learned a new trick. I, who hated all subtlety and looked upon craft as
the favorite weapon of the devil, learned to smile with my lips while my
heart was burning with hatred. Perhaps this was why you all began to
smile too, and joke me about certain losses I had sustained, by which
you meant the gains which had come to me. That these gains were many
times greater than you realized added to the sting of this good
fellowship, but I held my peace; and you began to have confidence in a
good-nature which nothing could shake. You even gave me a supper."

_A supper!_

What was there in these words to cause every man there to stop in
whatever movement he was making and stare, with wide-open eyes, intently
at the reader. He had spoken quietly; he had not eve