y wondered at his own inability to
move or speak or send out a thought of consolation to the man who had
suffered so fiercely.

Aymer gave a little gasp and was still a moment Then he went on:

"That's all my story, Christopher. Now comes your mother's part of it.
The first result of her marriage was that the Hibbaults' name ceased
to be a power for the Socialist party--became less than a power. James
Hibbault severed his connection with them entirely. I think Peter gave
him a place at one of his big affairs. He had bought them out, and for
a time the party fell into disrepute. But Elizabeth, whom he had
married, he had not bought. I think she believed she had and could
influence him, that she could sway him without loss of her own being.
I know she clung to her true personality with passionate strength. I
had failed to break it down, but I think Peter failed here also. When
she heard of her father's and brother's betrayal of their party--it
was nothing else--she was nearly crazy with grief. It was some time
before Peter could get her to acknowledge their marriage at all, and
she never, I believe, spoke of her people again. But at last he got
her to Stormly. I know very little of what happened there. I believe
he was willing she should play Lady Bountiful to his people if it
pleased her--even made her a big allowance for the purpose. But she
went amongst them and she would have none of it. She would make no
compromise with what she regarded as wholly evil. She found Peter had
only played with her regarding her creed--that he never had the least
intention of altering his plan of life to suit it. She hated it all a
hundredfold more than you did, Christopher, and the thought of
bringing a child into an atmosphere that was rank poison to her,
became a nightmare. Perhaps she was not wholly accountable then--there
was no woman to stand by her or counsel patience. Anyhow, about six
weeks before you were born, we believe she just disappeared. No one
knows how Peter really felt about it. In the face of the world he
shrugged his shoulders and went on with his life as if wife and
expected child had never been. We suppose he tried to find her at
first, but he always declared there was no need--she would come back
when she had had enough of the world. Eventually a letter reached him
saying you had come into the world and that, rather than put you under
the power of your father and all he stood for, she would bring you up
among the