A pang of agony shot across the sombre brow of Smithers. He was silent for a long time.
“Have you ever slighted her?” he asked at last.
“Never,” cried Philips. “I could worship her—”
Smithers smiled upon him with a smile so sweet that it chased all Philips’s fears away. He took courage and began to show more calm. “Fear nothing,” said Smithers, in a gentle voice. “I see that in spite of your follies and crimes there is something good in you yet. You love your mother, do you not?”
Tears came into Philips’s eyes. He sighed. “Yes,” he said, humbly.
“And you are kind to her—that other one?”
“I love her as my mother,” said Philips, earnestly.
Smithers again relapsed into silence for a long time. At last he looked up. Philips saw his eyes this time, no longer stern and wrathful, but benignant and indulgent.
“You have been all your life under the power of merciless men,” said he. “You have been led by them into folly and crime and suffering. Often you have been forced to act against your will. Poor wretch! I can save you, and I intend to do so in spite of yourself. You fear these masters of yours. You must know now that I, not they, am to be feared. They know your secret but dare not use it against you. I know it, and can use it if I choose. You have been afraid of them all your life. Fear them no longer, but fear me. These men whom you fear are in my power as well as you are. I know all their secrets—there is not a crime of theirs of which you know that I do not know also, and I know far more.
“You must from this time forth be my agent. Smithers & Co. have agents in all parts of the world. You shall be their agent in Brandon Hall. You shall say nothing of this interview to any one, not even to your mother—you shall not dare to communicate with me unless you are requested, except about such things as I shall specify. If you dare to shrink in any one point from your duty, at that instant I will come down upon you with a heavy hand. You, too, are watched. I have other agents here in Brandon besides yourself. Many of those who go to the bank as customers are my agents. You can not be false without my knowing it; and when you are false, that moment you shall be handed over to the authorities. Do you hear?”