He then took a line well known to artful men:
he encouraged Alfred to show his hand;
maintaining a complete reserve as to his own; "You
say you did not communicate your illusion about
this fourteen thousand pounds to Julia Dodd that
night: may I ask then (without indiscretion)
what did pass between you two?"

"I will tell you, sir. She saw me standing
there, and asked me in her own soft angel voice
if I was unhappy. I told her I must be a poor
creature if I could be happy. Then she asked
me, with some hesitation I thought, why I was
unhappy. I said, because I could not see the
path of honour and duty clear: that, at least,
was the purport. Then she told me that in all
difficulties she had found the best way was to
pray to God to guide her; and she begged me to
lay my care before him, and ask his counsel.
And then I thanked her; and bade her good night,
and she me; and that was all that passed between
us two unhappy lovers, whom you have made
miserable; and even cool to one another; but
not hostile to you. And you played the spy on
us, sir; and misunderstood us, as spies generally
do. Ah, sir! a few months ago you would not
have condescended to that."

Mr. Hardie coloured, but did not reply. He
had passed from the irritable into the quietly
vindictive stage.

Alfred then deprecated further discussion of
what was past, and said abruptly: "I have an
offer to make you: in a very short time I shall
have ten thousand pounds; I will not resign my
whole fortune; that would be unjust to myself,
and my wife; and I loathe and despise Injustice
in all its forms, however romantic or plausible.
But, if you will give the Dodds their 14,000l., I
will share my little fortune equally with you: and
thank you, and bless you. Consider, sir, with
your abilities and experience, five thousand
pounds may yet be the nucleus of a fortune; a
fortune built on an honourable foundation. I
know you will thrive with my five thousand
pounds ten times more than with their fourteen
thousand; and enjoy the blessing of blessings, a
clear conscience."

Now this offer was no sooner made than Mr.
Hardie shut his face, and went to mental
arithmetic, like one doing a sum behind a thick door.
He would have taken ten thousand: but five
thousand did not much tempt him: besides,
would it be five thousand clear? He already
owed Alfred two thousand five hundred. It
flashed through him that a young man who
loathed and despised Injustice—even to himself
—would not consent to be diddled by him out of
one sum while making him a present of another:
and then there was Skinner's thousand to be re-
reimbursed, He therefore declined in these
terms:

"This offer shows me you are sincere in these
strange notions you have taken up. I am sorry
for it: it looks like insanity. These nocturnal
illusions, these imaginary sights and sounds,
come of brooding on a single idea, and often
usher in a calamity one trembles to think of.
You have made me a proposal: I make you one:
take a couple of hundred pounds (I'll get it from
your trustees) and travel the Continent for four
months; enlarge and amuse your mind with the
contemplation of nature and manners and
customs; and if that does not clear this phantom
14,000/. out of your head, I am much mistaken."

Alfred replied that foreign travel was his
dream: but he could not leave Barkington while
here was an act of justice to be done.

"Then do me justice, boy," said Mr. Hardie,
with wonderful dignity, all things considered.
"Instead of brooding on your one fantastical
idea, and shutting out all rational evidence to the
contrary, take the trouble to look through my
books: and they will reveal to you a fortune, not
of fourteen thousand, but of eighty thousand
pounds, honourably sacrificed in the vain struggle
to fulfil my engagements: who, do you think,
will believe, against such evidence, the preposterous
tale you have concocted against your poor
father? Already the tide is turning, and all,
who have seen the accounts of the Bank, pity
me; they will pity me still more if ever they
hear my own flesh and blood insults me in the
moment of my fall; sees me ruined by my honesty,
and living in a hovel, yet comes into that poor
out honest abode, and stabs me to the heart by
accusing me of stealing fourteen thousand
pounds: a sum that would have saved me, if I
could only have laid my hands on it."

He hid his face, to conceal its incongruous
expression: and heaved a deep sigh.

Alfred turned his head away and groaned.

After a while he rose from his seat and went
to the door; but seemed reluctant to go: he
cast a longing, lingering look on his father, and
said beseechingly: "Oh think! you are not my
flesh and blood more than I am yours; is all the
love to be on my side? have I no influence even
when right is on my side?" Then he suddenly
turned and threw himself impetuously on his
knees; "Your father was the soul of honour;
your son loathed fraud and injustice from his
cradle; you stand between two generations of
Hardies, and belong to neither; do but reflect
one moment how bright a thing honour is, how
short and uncertain a thing life is, how sure a
thing retribution is, in this world or the next:
it is your guardian angel that kneels before you
now, and not your son; oh, for Christ's sake,
for my mother's sake, listen to my last appeal.
You don't know me: I cannot compound with
injustice. Pity me, pity her I love, pity
yourself!"

"You young viper!" cried the father, stung
with remorse but not touched with penitence.
"Get away, you amorous young hypocrite; get
out of my house, get out of my sight, or I'll spit
on you and curse you at my feet."

"Enough!" said Alfred, rising and turning
suddenly calm as a statue; "let us be gentlemen,
if you please, even though we must be
enemies. Good-by, my father that was."