. If there's anything that I have and you need, it's yours
before you ask it, to the last dollar I possess. Come now--tell me
what's the trouble?"

Stuart could feel the big form sway and tremble under the stress of
overwhelming emotion, and his arm pressed a little closer. And then the
tension suddenly broke.

The doctor sank into a chair and looked up with a helpless stare.

"Yes, Jim, I will--I'll--tell--you."

He gasped and choked, paused, pulled himself together and cried:

"I must tell somebody or jump out of that window and dash my brains
out!"

When the paroxysm of emotion had spent itself, he drew a deep sigh and
began to speak in broken accents.

"I was in trouble for money, my boy, in the deepest trouble."

"And you didn't let me know!" Stuart interrupted reproachfully.

"How could I? I was proud and sensitive. I had taught you high ideals.
How could the teacher come to his pupil and say, 'I've failed.' My
theories were beautiful, but they don't work in life. And so I
struggled on until I waked one day to find that I was getting old, that
I had gone to war to fight other men's battles and had left my loved
one at home to perish. The first hideous sense of failure crept over me
and paralyzed soul and body with fear. I was becoming a pauper. You see
I had always believed that a man who poured out his life for others
could not fail. And then I--who had given, given, given, always given
my time, my money, my soul, and body--waked to find that I was sucked
dry, that I was played out, that I was bankrupt in money, bankrupt in
life! The great love I had borne the world suddenly grew faint under
the sense of loneliness and failure. And I gave up. I withdrew my suit
and determined to throw myself on the generosity of the man who owed
his wealth and power to the start I had given him, the man who
destroyed my business and wrecked my fortune. He had made me two offers
that seemed generous when I recalled them. I judged his character by my
own and I went to his house the night of that ball without invitation."

The doctor's voice broke and he paused. And then with the tears
streaming down his cheeks unchecked, his accents broken with
unrestrained sobs he told the story of his meeting with Bivens, of his
abject pleading when he had thrown pride to the winds, of the cruel and
brutal taunts, and the last beastly insult when the millionaire boasted
of his squandering of millions and rejoiced that he could flaunt t