be, and that he was all alone in his schemes. His life
on Broadway, on Long Island, in his studio in New York, were ransacked
for details. Enough could not be made of his gay, shameful, spendthrift
life. No one else, of course, had ever been either gay or shameful
before--especially not the eminent and hounding financiers.

Then from somewhere appeared a new element. In a staggeringly low
tenement region in Brooklyn was discovered somehow or other a very old
man and woman, most unsatisfactory as relatives of such imposing people,
who insisted that they were his parents, that years before because he
and his sister were exceedingly restless and ambitious, they had left
them and had only returned occasionally to borrow money, finally ceasing
to come at all. In proof of this, letters, witnesses, old photos, were
produced. It really did appear as if he and his sister, although they
had long vigorously denied it, really were the son and daughter of the
two who had been petty bakers in Brooklyn, laying up a little
competence of their own. I never knew who "dug" them up, but the reason
why was plain enough. The sister was laying claim to the property as the
next of kin. If this could be offset, even though X---- were insane, the
property would at once be thrown into the hands of the various creditors
and sold under a forced sale, of course--in other words, for a song--for
their benefit. Naturally it was of interest to those who wished to have
his affairs wound up to have the old people produced. But the great
financier had been spreading the report all along that he was from
Russia, that his parents, or pseudo-parents, were still there, but that
really he was the illegitimate son of the Czar of Russia, boarded out
originally with a poor family. Now, however, the old people were brought
from Brooklyn and compelled to confront him. It was never really proved
that he and his sister had neglected them utterly or had done anything
to seriously injure them, but rather that as they had grown in place and
station they had become more or less estranged and so ignored them,
having changed their names and soared in a world little dreamed of by
their parents. Also a perjury charge was made against the sister which
effectually prevented her from controlling his estate, a lease long
enough to give the financiers time for their work. Naturally there was a
great hue and cry over her, the scandal, the shame, that they should
thus publicly refuse