star-vision--behind the
prison bars.

"Birthdays and Christmases played the deuce with them." Gaston was off
the trail now that he dared voice the memories of the past. They had so
long haunted him. They might pass if he could tell them to another.

"Go on," Joyce said, impatiently glancing at the clock as if her time
were short. "Please go on. It doesn't matter about that. What was
before, and--and what must come, now?"

"It does matter," Gaston came back. "It was that determination of mine
not to be finished by that phase of my life, that left strength in me to
be halfway decent since. I only meant to regain my health up here. I
meant to go back to the life I had deserted and make good before them
all--but something happened."

"Yes." Gaston's face had clouded, and Joyce had to recall him.

"You see it was this way. There were a lot of people--but only four
mattered. My mother, my brother, the girl and her father."

The hands under Gaston's slipped away, but he did not notice.

"My mother had a heart trouble, she could not bear much--and she always
loved my brother best. He had the look and way with him that made it
easy for her to prefer him. I believed the--girl cared most for me--that
was what kept things going all right for a time--her father liked me
best, I knew.

"I had a position of trust, the control of much money, and my head got
turned, I suppose--for I felt sure of everything; myself included. Then
things happened all of a sudden.

"My brother found that the girl cared for me, not him; it broke him up,
and that brought on an attack of sickness for my mother. She never could
bear to see him suffer. My own happiness was twisted out of shape by
what I saw was to be the result of my gain over his loss.

"One night he came to me and told me that his investments had gone
wrong; our mother's fortune along with the rest. A certain sum of money,
right then, would tide over the critical situation.

"There was no chance but that all would come out right. He had private
information that a few days would change the current. He would come out
to the good--if only--"

"And you?" Joyce held him with her wide, terrified stare.

"Oh, yes! I didn't think there was any danger, and it seemed a chance to
help when everything was about to come clattering around our ears. I
helped. Good God, I helped!"

Gaston dropped his head on his folded arms.

"What happened when they all knew? When you explained--couldn't