Drew flushed scarlet.
"I am quite sure they did not," he said emphatically.
"I've got to find her, Drew"; Gaston breathed hard; "none of you understand the situation in the least."
"Perhaps we do, Gaston." The minister-instinct rose within the weak man, and gave him the sudden dignity that had always impressed Jock Filmer.
For the life of him Gaston could not despise the young fellow. There was courage of purpose and conviction that ennobled his frail body. It was no easy thing, Gaston felt sure, for him to place himself and his youth in this attitude toward a man older than he. It was undeniable Drew lost sight of himself every time he accepted the demands of his profession,—and the renunciation won respect.
"See here Drew, I do not often give my confidence. It does not often appear necessary, and I think nine times out of ten it complicates matters instead of solving mysteries, but I'm going to speak quite openly to you—for Joyce's sake. It would not make any difference to others—they think she deserves punishment for appearing to deserve it, but I believe you will be able to comprehend the difference and perhaps help me to help her.
"Up to the night when she told me that she had seen you, and that your conversation had emphasized some doubts of her own—she had been to me, first a poor hounded creature, then, a striving, high-minded girl endeavouring to free herself from the bondage of evil that had been her inheritance. I'm not going to speak of myself in the matter, only so far as to say that my own life, under different environment, has been such—that I understood; I undertook the—task of helping her! Whatever of temptation cropped up now and then, was strangled for her sake always,—sometimes for my own, too—it died at last, and I was enabled to serve her with single purpose.
"What that task has meant to me—I cannot expect any living soul to understand. I was very lonely. I never looked for reward nor recompense. It was—I thought it was—enough in itself. But something had been going on that was no part of my plan. Like a revelation it came to me, that last evening I spent at home—that she was a splendid woman; and I knew that I loved her!
"That was why I went away. I went to find Jude Lauzoon. I meant to free her, and marry her. Her love has always been mine. This may make no difference—perhaps you cannot believe it—but it's God's truth, and now you see why I must have her."
Drew had never shifted his gaze from the speaker's face. Conflicting emotions tore him—but there was no doubt in his heart, now, of Gaston.