38 The Illumination of Joseph Keeler, Esq. 



way to deceive, even though he tried to palliate his brother's 

 faults. The father said: 



"Tom, I am greatly distressed. I have observed that John 

 has for months been keeping later and more irregular hours; 

 that his appearance in the morning has indicated dissipation of 

 the night before; but I never dreamed that one of my sons could 

 ever so forget himself as to be brought home intoxicated. I 

 want to know how long this has been going on and whether or 

 not there is any special cause for such a change in John?" 



"Father," said Tom, "I hope you won't be too hard on John; 

 but things have been going from bad to worse ever since John 

 got in with that syndicate bunch in the Follie Park real-estate 

 deal. You know most of them and, while some are very nice 

 fellows, the manager who has little or no stock in the concern, 

 and Sam Brown, who is president, have been playing pretty 

 sharp lately and by encouraging play and its accompaniments 

 have kept the crowd as much as possible from realising just 

 how matters have been going. They paid a long price for the 

 farm, and while some have been able to meet payments, others, 

 and John amongst them, have been getting farther behind every 

 day, and some have been foolish enough to try and make it up 

 by 'play' and others have just kept playing because they did 

 not know how to get out." 



"And to which lot does John belong?" 



Tom looked at his father, whose firm, stern face made decep- 

 tion impossible, and said : 



"You see, father, John just played for sport at first, and drank 

 a little; but as these payments became pressing he had been so 

 unaccustomed to such calls upon him that it made him anxious 

 and irritable and I think that he often played and drank more 

 just to make him forget, especially as the manager kept telling 

 him that when the season opened and the tramway ran past the 

 park, the price of lots would double." 



Again the father asked, looking more anxiously if not more 

 sternly : 



"Was John mixed up in that scandal, which Saturday Night 

 talked about?" 



Tom's face paled with shame and fear at his father's question 



