CHAPTER XXI
Hugh Gordon Tells His Story
Dr. Annister dismissed his last patient and looked at his watch. It was nine o’clock and Felix Brand, he thought, was probably in the waiting room. His face was even paler than usual and its deep lines told of pain, anxiety and spent strength. He sat down, his head upon his hand and his thoughts upon his daughter.
“Poor child!” he said to himself. “It will go hard with her. But there can be no ‘ifs’ or ‘ands’ about it now. Her mother must take her away where there will be no possibility of her seeing him again. Poor little girl!”
He rose with a weary sigh and crossed to the door into the waiting room. As he threw it open a man at the farther side of the room arose and came toward him with a quick, firm stride and a confident manner. He saw at once that it was not Felix Brand.
“Good evening, Dr. Annister,” said the stranger. “I know you were expecting to see Mr. Brand, but I have come in his place. I am Hugh Gordon.”
“I am glad to see you, Mr. Gordon,” the doctor replied, his interest at once at high pitch. “You can tell me the other side of the case. I met you once before, I believe. Will you come in?”
The physician cast a keen glance at his visitor and said to himself, astonished, that he would never have believed this physical envelope to be the same that housed the man with whom he had talked a few hours before. Feature and coloring were there, it was true, but a different soul animated the body and lighted the countenance and made of the whole another man. The tell-tale signs of evil living had vanished from the face, and so also had its expression of ultra refinement and sensitiveness, while in the eyes no longer shone that winning, caressing look which had been a magnet for the hearts of women. This man held his head high, his eyes were keen, penetrating, virile, and in his countenance the doctor read sincerity, forcefulness, determination. “‘As he thinketh in his heart, so is he’,” Dr. Annister mused as he leaned forward to listen to what the young man was saying.
“I have come to tell you the truth about this matter, so that you can see for yourself that Felix Brand is not worth saving. You promised him this morning that you would help him. But when you hear what I can tell you I have no doubt you will feel, as I do, that he deserves the fate he has brought upon himself and that the world will be better to be rid of him.”