He was a good man, but he was never happy; and only at the last would he listen to the priest, though they were always great friends.

He was not a Catholic of course, but he said that didn't matter." Sir William interrupted huskily.

"Why did he never come back ?" "I do not know quite, but he said to me once, 'Gaston, you'll tell them of me some day, and it will be a soft pillow for their heads! You can mend a broken life, but the ring of it is gone.' I think he meant to come back when I was about fourteen; but things happened, and he stayed." There was a pause.

Gaston seemed brooding, and Lady Belward said: "Go on, please." "There isn't so very much to tell.

The life was the only one I had known, and it was all right.