human
You may imagine the scene, he continued.
gpt
But the worst was to come----
human
Oh, you were there?
gpt
When you hear the rest you will think, if there is a God, I should have been, for I might have saved him. I was in Honolulu. I did not even hear of it for ten days. They found him in his bathroom where he had dressed, thrown himself on a couch, and shot himself.
human
How terrible!
gpt
In his bedroom they found a letter. It had been sent to him within the hour by a party of blackmailers, pressing a charge--of which he was quite innocent--on the part of a designing woman, and threatening that unless he complied with some impossible demands, his exposure and news of an action for damages should follow in the papers containing the account of his sister’s wedding. They found with this his own letter to his mother. He assured her the charge was utterly false, but being a Kimberly he knew he should not be believed because of the reputation of his uncles, one of whom he named, and after whom he himself was named, and to whom he had always been closest. This, he feared, would condemn him no matter how innocent he might be; he felt he should be unable to lift from his name a disgrace that would always be recalled with his sister’s wedding; and that if he gave up his life he knew the charges would be dropped because he was absolutely innocent. And so he died.
human
Poor, poor boy! she said softly.
gpt
How I pity him!
human
Do you so? Then well may I. For I am the uncle whom he named in his letter.
gpt
You said the uncle he was named after.
human
Yes, he answered slowly,
gpt
It is frightfully sad, she said haltingly. Then as if she must add something:
human
I am very sorry you felt compelled to recall so painful a story.
gpt
It isn’t exactly that I felt compelled; yet perhaps that expresses it, too. I have expected sometime to tell it to you.