I meant it then, and I mean it
now! Come to me as you are! Faults, and past, and all. Forget the
past! Whatever it was we will together try to wipe it out. Much may be
done in restoring where there has been any wrong-doing. Take my name as
your own. It will protect you from the result of what ever has been, and
give you an opportunity to find your place again. You are not bad in
heart I know. Whatever you have done has not been from base motives. Few
of us are spotless as to facts. You and I will show ourselves--for
unless God wills to the opposite we shall confide in none other--that a
strong, brave man may win back all that was lost. Let me call you by my
name and hold you as the son of my heart; and it will be a joy and
pleasure to my declining years.'

As he had spoken, Harold's thought's had at first followed in some
wonderment. But gradually, as his noble purpose unfolded, based as it
was on a misconception as to the misdoing of which he himself had spoken,
he had been almost stricken dumb. At the first realisation of what was
intended he could not have spoken had he tried; but at the end he had
regained his thoughts and his voice. There was still wonderment in it,
as realising from the long pause that the old man had completed his
suggestion, he spoke:

'If I understand aright you are offering me your name! Offering to share
your honour with me. With me, whom, if again I understand, you take as
having committed some crime?'

'I inferred from what you said and from your sadness, your desire to shun
your kind, that there was, if not a crime, some fault which needed
expiation.'

'But your honour, sir; your honour!' There was a proud look in the old
man's eyes as he said quietly:

'It was my desire, is my desire, to share with you what I have that is
best; and that, I take it, is not the least valuable of my possessions,
such as they are! And why not? You have given to me all that makes life
sweet; without which it would be unbearable. That child who came to my
wife and me when I was old and she had passed her youth is all in all to
us both. Had your strength and courage been for barter in the moments
when my child was quivering between life and death, I would have
cheerfully purchased them with not half but all! Sir, I should have
given my soul! I can say this now, for gratitude is above all barter;
and surely it is allowed to a father to show gratitude for the life of
his child!'

T