A Fool There Was

by Porter Emerson Browne

"I don't know," he answered…. And then: "It must have been. The servants are all gone."

"Servants gone?"

"Yes; there's been no one below stairs for a fortnight. They irritated him, and he discharged them, one and all."

"His valet?"

"Went last night. I go to-morrow…. To have known him as he was—and then to see him as he is—I couldn't stand it any longer."

There was a pause. Blake looked about him. At length he spoke:

"Does—she come here, now?"

"Seldom. No one else ever comes. It's a lonely place, sir—frightfully lonely."

"And he?"

"Drink, if you will pardon me—and remorse. He seems bent only upon forgetting everything. Try as I will I can't keep the brandy from him. All day—all night—he drinks, and drinks, and tries to forget."