before them all an instant later and to feel his
heart sink as in an abyss of unutterable dismay. He had crumpled the
dirty paper in his hand, he remembered, and thrown it to the ground--to
pick it up immediately and smooth it out as though it were a precious
document. To his secretary he tried to explain that the writer was an
odd fanatic who must be humored. Determined at the first blush to face
the matter out, to answer and to defy this pauper Pole who had dared to
threaten him, he came ultimately to see that discretion would best serve
him. Paul Boriskoff had named Kensington Gardens as a rendezvous where
matters might be discussed. Gessner was there to the minute--without
idea, without hope, seeking only that pity which he himself had never
bestowed upon any human being.

Paul Boriskoff did not hurry to the Gardens, so sure was he of the
success of his undertaking. The frowsy black coat, in which he made his
bow to the millionaire, had not seen the light for many years--his hat
was a wide-brimmed eccentricity in soft felt which greatly delighted the
nursemaids who passed him by. Gessner would never have recognized, in
the hollow-cheeked, pale-faced, humble creature the sturdy young Pole
who had come to him nearly a generation ago and had said, "Our fortunes
are made; this is my discovery." Believing at the moment that money
would buy such a derelict, body and soul, he opened the negotiations
firmly and in that lofty tone which suited Throgmorton Street so well.
But five minutes had not passed before he understood his mistake and
realized that Boriskoff, the lad who had trusted him, and Boriskoff, the
Pole who now threatened him, were one and the same after all.

"I remember you perfectly," he said; "it would be idle to say that I do
not. You had some claim in the matter of a certain furnace. Yes, I
remember that and would willingly admit it. But, my friend, you fell
into trouble with the Government, and what could I do then? Was not I
also compelled to leave Poland? Did not I change my name for that very
reason? How could I repay the debt? Here in England it is different.
You make your existence known to me and I respond at once. Speak
freely, then, for I shall hear you patiently."

They were seated on a bench beneath a chestnut in full bloom. Distantly,
through a vista of giant trunks, the waters of the Round Pond glimmered
in the evening light. Children, worn out by the day, sat idle in groups
on the benches of