This then was Jack's mystery.

This explained his nervous avoidance of all references to home, his sudden changes of manner both at Stonebridge House and in London.

Poor Jack! We neither of us spoke for some time; then, as if in answer to the questions I longed to ask, he continued, "I hardly ever saw him.

When mother died he went nearly mad and took to drinking, so Mrs Shield told me, and left home.

No one heard of him again till it was discovered he had forged on his employers.