“Don’t think we require it,” said Gerald courteously. “The slight favor we have done you gives us no right to ask your confidence.”
“Still you look friendly and I am glad to tell you about myself. I am, as you will judge from my appearance, a working-man, and have ever since I attained my majority been employed in woolen mills. The last place where I was employed was at Seneca, in the factory of——”
“Bradley Wentworth?” asked Gerald quickly.
“Yes. Do you know him?” inquired the stranger in surprise.
“Yes; he has been making me a visit here. If you had come here twenty-four hours earlier you would have seen him.”
“Then I am glad I was delayed.”
“Why? Has he wronged you?”
“I don’t know whether I can rightly say that, but he has treated me without mercy. Let me explain. Fifteen years ago I was employed in an Eastern factory. Among my fellow-workmen was one I thought my friend. We were so intimate that we occupied the same room at a factory boarding-house. All went well. I received excellent wages, and had money laid by. My companion, as I soon found, was given to extravagance, and frequently indulged in drink, so that he found it hard work to make both ends meet. Then he began to borrow money of me, but after a time I refused to accommodate him any further. He earned the same wages as myself, and I felt that he ought to maintain himself without help as I did.
“The result of my refusal was to make him my enemy. He said little but looked ugly. Though I did not expect it he schemed a revenge. One day a pocketbook containing money was missing from an adjoining room. A fuss was made, and a search instituted, which resulted to my utter dismay in the pocketbook being found in my trunk. It contained no money, but a couple of papers which attested the ownership. Of course I asserted my innocence, but no one believed me. The proof was held to be too convincing. I was brought to trial, and sentenced to three months’ imprisonment. That imprisonment,” he continued bitterly, “has shadowed all my life since. Of course I could not get back to the factory where I had been employed, and I went to another State. I was left in peace for ten months when one of my fellow-workmen made his appearance and told the superintendent that I had served a sentence of imprisonment for theft. I was summoned to the office, informed of the charge, and had to admit it. I was instantly discharged. To assert my innocence was of no avail. ‘You were found guilty. That is enough for us,’ said the superintendent.