he could do to contain himself. As far as his younger brother
was concerned, he meant well by him. It had always been his intention
that his first use of Grandpa Thorley's money should be in supplementing
Claude's meager personal resources and helping him to keep on his feet.
He could be patient with him, too--patient under all sorts of stinging
gibes and double-edged compliments--patient for weeks, for
months--patient right up to the minute when something touched him too
keenly on the quick, and his wrath broke out with a fury he knew to be
dangerous. It was so dangerous as to make him afraid--afraid for Claude,
and more afraid for himself. There had been youthful quarrels between
them from which he had come away pale with terror, not at what he had
done, but at what he might have done had he not maintained some measure
of self-control.

The memory of such occasions kept him quiet now, though the irony of
Claude's speech cut so much deeper than any one could suspect. "Won't be
anything that has to do with a pretty girl!" Good God! When he was
beginning to feel his soul rent in the struggle between love and honor!
It was like something sprung on him--that had caught him unawares. There
were days when the suffering was so keen that he wondered if there was
no way of lawfully giving in. After all, he had never asked Lois
Willoughby to marry him. There had never been more between them than an
unspoken intention in his mind which had somehow communicated itself to
hers. But that was not a pledge. If he were to marry some one else, she
couldn't reproach him by so much as a syllable.

It was not often that he was tempted to reason thus, but Claude's
sarcasm brought up the question more squarely than it had ever raised
itself before. It was exactly the sort of subject on which, had it
concerned any one else, Thor would have turned for light to Lois
herself. In being debarred from her counsels, he felt strangely at a
loss. While he said to himself that after all these years there was but
one thing for him to do, he was curious as to the view other people
might take of such a situation. It was because of this need, and with
Claude's sneer ringing in his heart, that later in the day he sprang the
question on Dearlove. Dearlove was the derelict English butler whom Thor
had picked out of the gutter and put in charge of his office so that he
might have another chance. He had been summoned into his master's
presence to explain the