"No, I could not—I could not bring myself to tell her of her grandfather's share in the matter."
"I am glad of that. It would have done no good. She knows nothing then?"
"Nothing, except that her father gave his life for another."
"But I did not even do that."
"You sacrificed it for my father's good name, and leaving that out of the question, you have given it now. You tried to save John Bender."
"But my effort had no effect upon his safety. It was sheer good luck that saved him, and I did not try to save a drowning sailor, as you supposed. I slipped over the side of the vessel as she lay off the Mexican coast. I was always a fair swimmer, and I had no trouble getting to shore where I lay in hiding till the vessel got away. No one discovered—I changed my name, learned the language, and was soon earning my living. I managed to save a little and at the end of a year I yearned for my own country. I didn't want to venture so near home that I would be tempted to try to get a glimpse of those I had parted from forever. I would be no possible Enoch Arden to Lillian. I remembered hearing my father mention this lonely little island, a primitive enough spot then, and it seemed just the place for me. I took a vessel to Portland, a sailing vessel, came down here, where it seemed well to stay. No one has ever known."
"Why did you do it, Lew? Why did you not come back when the deficit was made good, and the matter was hushed up? My father was able to keep it out of the papers, and his influence with the directors of the bank saved the situation, so far as you were concerned, for you were his son-in-law, remember, and no one dreamed that he was the guiltier of the two. Your letters with the instructions about the checks were the ones I found, the last ever received from you."
"There was a little property belonging to me which came from my mother. I had almost forgotten about it. I went West to see about it and found it more valuable than I supposed. I sold it and sent your father the proceeds to pay back the amount I had persuaded myself I had borrowed from the bank. There was a little more than enough to cover my share."
"And the rest my father was able to pay before he died. And we thought—the world thought it was all your debt, yet how paltry your share was compared to his," said Miss Elliott bitterly.
"It does not matter now."