He shook his head.
“It is not poverty,” he answered. “I knew his history, and I am interested in him!”
“You write novels, don’t you?” she asked.
“I try,” he answered. “His story fascinated me. He stands today in a unique position to life. I want to see how he will come out of it.”
“You knew his story—the truth?”
“Everything,” he answered. “I heard it from a journalist who was in court, his only friend, the only man who knew.”
“Where is he now?”
“On his way to Japan.”
She drew a little breath between her teeth.
“There were rumors,” she said. “It was hard for me at first, but I lived them down. I was very young then. I ought not to have accepted his sacrifice. I wish to heaven I had not. I wish that I had faced the scandal then. It is worse to be in the power of a man like this today! Mr. Aynesworth!”