Page:Daskam Bacon--Whom the gods destroy.djvu/143

 Dillon bit his lip a moment; he would rather have taken a whipping than say what he had to say. The clock ticked loud in the pause, and Bob, every moment clearer-eyed, heavy sleep a thing of the past, stared at him disconcertingly.

"What I'm going to say to you," Dillon began, "isn't very often said by one man to another, I imagine. Few men are placed in just my position. I've known you all so well, I've seen so much of you all my life" he paused.

"I needn't say how much I thought of your mother. When your father was—when he broke down so often at the last, of course I saw a great deal of her, and she trusted me a lot—she had to, once she began. When she died, and you weren't there, because you" "Don't! please don't, Dill!" the boy's lips contracted; his slim body twisted with a helpless remorse.

"Well, then, when she died she asked me to look out for you, because she knew how I loved her and—and Helena. She knew you had it in you, and she didn't blame you—they never do, I suppose,