He spoke of no trouble, and his transition was quite peaceful." "It was a cruel ending," Brooks said, quietly.

"There were people in London whom he had befriended who would have worked their passage out and faced any hardships to be with him.

And my mother, notwithstanding his desertion, believed in him to the last." There was a moment's intense silence.

This visitor who had come so strangely was to all appearance a man not easily to be moved.

Yet Brooks fancied that the long white fingers were trembling, and that the strange quiet of his features was one of intense self-repression.