"Always near when I need you. Many a scrape have you helped me out of,
but this is beyond your power," and a faint smile passed over Jasper's
lips as the past flitted before his mind. But the smile died, and a
groan of pain escaped him as he cried suddenly, "Quick! Let me tell it
before it is too late! Maurice never will, but bear the shame all his
life that my dead name may be untarnished. Bring Edith; she must hear
the truth."

She was soon there, and, lying in his mother's arms, one hand in his
cousin's, and one on his sister's bent head, Jasper rapidly told the
secret which had burdened him for a year.

"I did it; I forged my uncle's name when I had lost so heavily at play
that I dared not tell my mother, or squander more of my own fortune. I
deceived Maurice, and let him think the check a genuine one; I made him
present it and get the money, and when all went well I fancied I was
safe. But my uncle discovered it secretly, said nothing, and, believing
Maurice the forger, disinherited him. I never knew this till the old man
died, and then it was too late. I confessed to Maurice, and he forgave
me. He said, 'I am helpless now, shut out from the world, with nothing
to lose or gain, and soon to be forgotten by those who once knew me, so
let the suspicion of shame, if any such there be, still cling to me, and
do you go your way, rich, happy, honorable, and untouched by any shadow
on your fame.' Mother, I let him do it, unconscious as he was that many
knew the secret sin and fancied him the doer of it."

"Hush, Jasper, let it pass. I can bear it; I promised your dear father
to be your staunch friend through life, and I have only kept my word."

"God knows you have, but now my life ends, and I cannot die till you are