“Because—well, I have not perhaps urged the matter sufficiently,” he said.
“You say you did this man a service,” said Gerald.
“Yes. I think the time has come when I should tell you what that service is. Let me say in the outset that I saved his reputation at the expense of my own. It was, I am afraid, a mistake, for it ruined my life. But I was strongly tempted!”
He paused. Gerald listened with painful interest.
“You never told me much of your early life, father,” he said.
“You have wondered, no doubt, why I left civilization and buried myself-and you-in this out-of-the-way place?”
“Yes, father, I have wondered, but I did not like to ask you.”
“It is the fault of one man.”
“The man whom you expect to befriend me, father?”