human
You have known this all along, and yet you never told me,
gpt
Where was the need? What good end would it have served? It was enough that one of us should have to carry such a secret about with him. I was the elder, and the burden devolved of right upon me. Besides, my father evidently relied upon my telling no one--not even you.
human
It was my duty and my right to have shared it with you. In any case, I am glad--if, indeed, one can be glad about anything in connection with so terrible a secret--that the knowledge has come to me now instead of later on.
gpt
Could I have had my way, it would never have come to you. But before we discuss the matter further, tell me what led you to put that question to me which you flung at my head, as it were, with such startling suddenness.
human
It is a strange story, said Edward, when he had finished;
gpt
You should have shared it with me from the first. But the question now is, what ought to be done next?
human
I scarcely follow you.
gpt
I mean, as regards John Brancker. Ought he not to be told?
human
Told what?
gpt
What Ephraim Judd told me. It was the last wish of the dying man, as expressed by him to me, that such reparation should be made as was still possible.
human
Just so! You would tell John Brancker all about the blood-smears, and also reveal to him the fact that Judd saw him quit the Bank five minutes after he had entered it, although at the trial he swore to the contrary. This you would tell, leaving Brancker to deal with the statement in whatever way might seem most advisable to him.
gpt
That is precisely what I have thought of doing. So far everything seems perfectly clear. But, as regards the latter portion of the confession--supplemented as it is by our father's letter--that concerns John Brancker infinitely more than all the rest.
human
John Brancker was tried for a crime of which he was innocent, and was acquitted, said Edward, in a hard, cold voice.
gpt
To-day he is a free man--as free as you or I.
human
But is that all? You know as well as I that it is not. Think of all he has suffered and gone through. Consider----
gpt
I have considered--for I can foresee all you would urge. I have thought it over long ago from every possible point of view. It is for you to consider and to realize that there is an altogether different way of looking at the affair from the one you have chosen to adopt, one, too, which concerns you and me very nearly. With your good leave, I will proceed to make clear to you what I mean.
human
It was within a couple of hours of hearing of my father's death, resumed Edward,
gpt
I certainly should have done so,
human
I preferred to hold on, taking care, meanwhile, to secure an eminent advocate for the defense. There were many weak links in the chain of evidence, and it seemed to me that no jury would convict the prisoner without something stronger to go upon. The event proved that I was right in my belief. John Brancker was acquitted.
gpt
Truly so; but can you even faintly realize the mental torture he must have suffered meanwhile? Can you----
human
My dear fellow, I hope you do not for one moment imagine that I did not feel keenly for Brancker. My heart bled for him many and many a time. I seemed to myself to have added ten years to my age during those weeks that he lay in prison. I would willingly have given half of all I had in the world if by so doing I could have reversed the verdict of the Coroner's jury. But all that belongs to the past. What I want you to do now is to realize for yourself what would have been the effect on the fortunes of those he left behind him had I made known the contents of my father's letter. In the first place, your mother and sister would have been reduced to pauperism, or next door to it.
gpt
How could that have come about?
human
Because, had it become known that my father committed suicide deliberately and intentionally, and without any mitigating plea of mental derangement, his life policy of twelve thousand pounds would have been forfeited; and that, as you are aware, forms nearly the sole resource of your mother and sister.
gpt
I had not thought of that,