"Where?"
"In his desk."
"Addressed to you?"
"Yes—to be opened—after—"
"And—telling you about—"
"About—what I have told you."
"Not saying how it happened?"
"Yes. It has been the work of years. Embarrassments always increasing. Borrowing from—yours—to stave off this and that—meaning to repay, and never able. Speculating, failing, getting deeper and deeper into trouble; always hoping things would right themselves somehow, until—until—"
"Yes, until—"
"A very heavy loss, just after I left home—failure of a speculation, from which he had hoped everything. I think that was his death-blow. He faced the truth then: realised for the first time how things were, and how near your coming of age was. It has been one long misery since. He could never make up his mind to speak."