“I assented, wondering what this proposal could be.  Perhaps this eccentric old gentleman was a good fellow, after all, anxious to do me a good turn, and his awkwardness was nothing but a natural delicacy in breaking the ice.  I was not so flush of good friends as to be willing to lose one.  He might be desirous of putting business in my way.

“I went, and was received with cordiality that even then seemed a little over-effusive.  We sat and talked of one thing and another for a long while, and I began to wonder when Mr. Foggatt was coming to the point that most interested me.  Several times he invited me to drink and smoke, but long usage to athletic training has given me a distaste for both practices, and I declined.  At last he began to talk about myself.  He was afraid that my professional prospects in this country were not great, but he had heard that in some of the colonies—­South Africa, for example—­young lawyers had brilliant opportunities.

“‘If you’d like to go there,’ he said, ’I’ve no doubt, with a little capital, a clever man like you could get a grand practice together very soon.  Or you might buy a share in some good established practice.  I should be glad to let you have L500, or even a little more, if that wouldn’t satisfy you, and——­’

“I stood aghast.  Why should this man, almost a stranger, offer me L500, or even more, ‘if that wouldn’t satisfy’ me?  What claim had I on him?  It was very generous of him, of course, but out of the question.  I was, at least, a gentleman, and had a gentleman’s self-respect.  Meanwhile, he had gone maundering on, in a halting sort of way, and presently let slip a sentence that struck me like a blow between the eyes.

“’I shouldn’t like you to bear ill-will because of what has happened in the past,’ he said.  ’Your late—­your late lamented mother—­I’m afraid—­she had unworthy suspicions—­I’m sure—­it was best for all parties—­your father always appreciated——­’

“I set back my chair and stood erect before him.  This groveling wretch, forcing the words through his dry lips, was the thief who had made another of my father and had brought to miserable ends the lives of both my parents!  Everything was clear.  The creature went in fear of me, never imagining that I did not know him, and sought to buy me off—­to buy me from the remembrance of my dead mother’s broken heart for L500—­L500 that he had made my father steal for him!  I said not a word.  But the memory of all my mother’s bitter years, and a savage sense of this crowning insult to myself, took a hold upon me, and I was a tiger.  Even then I verily believe that one word of repentance, one tone of honest remorse, would have saved him.  But he drooped his eyes, snuffled excuses, and stammered of ‘unworthy suspicions’ and ‘no ill-will.’  I let him stammer.  Presently he looked up and saw my face; and fell back in his chair, sick with terror.  I snatched the pistol from the mantel-piece, and, thrusting it in his face, shot him where he sat.