"And your father," I inquired, presently, "is he dead too?"
"No!" said Jack, with a sudden return of his old abruptness.
I was perplexed, but it was no use, evidently, pumping my friend with further questions in that direction. So we proceeded to undress in silence, and were soon in bed.
Presently the other lodgers came up, and then there was no chance of renewing our talk, even if Jack had been so inclined. But he seemed evidently in no humour for pursuing it.
In due time all was quiet once more, and then, just as I was beginning to feel drowsy, and was lying half awake, half asleep, fancying myself back again at Stonebridge House in the old dormitory, I felt a hand on my arm and heard Jack's voice whisper, "Fred, are you asleep?"
"No," I replied, moving over to make room for him as he slipped in beside me.
"Fred," he whispered, "I'm afraid you think me a brute."
"No, I don't," replied I, astonished; "why ever should I?"
"Why, I offended you just now, when you meant to be kind."
"No you didn't," said I. "I know there are some things you don't like to talk about, and I--I've no right to ask you about them."
Jack lay silent for some minutes. Then he whispered--
"Old man, you can keep a secret, can't you?"
"Yes," I said, wondering what was coming.
"I've never told it to anybody yet; but somehow it's awful having no one to talk to," he said.
"What is it, Jack?" I asked. "I won't tell a soul."
He crept closer to me, and his voice dropped to a lower whisper as he said, "Fred--_my father is a convict_!"
I was too bewildered and shocked to speak. All I could do was to take the hand which lay on my arm and hold it in mine. 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. I remember their coming and looking for him at M--, where we then lived. He wasn't there, but they found him in London, and,"--here Jack groaned--"he was transported."