n't know which would have been the baser
mode of traffic. Is that the conduct of a gentleman, Clary?"

Poor Clarissa was in terrible trouble. She hardly believed the story,
which seemed to tell her of a degree of villany greater than ever her
imagination had depicted to her;--and yet, if it were true, she would
be driven to look for means of excusing it. The story as told was
indeed hardly just to Ralph, who in the course of his transactions
with Mr. Neefit had almost taught himself to believe that he could
love Polly very well; but it was not in this direction that Clarissa
looked for an apology for such conduct. "They say that men do all
manner of things," she said, at last.

"I can only tell you this," said Sir Thomas very gravely, "what men
may do I will not say, but no gentleman can ever have acted after
this fashion. He has shown himself to be a scoundrel."

"Papa, papa; don't say that!" screamed Clarissa.

"My child, I can only tell you the truth. I know it is hard to bear.
I would save you if I could; but it is better that you should know."

"Will he always be bad, papa?"

"Who can say, my dear? God forbid that I should be too severe upon
him. But he has been so bad now that I am bound to tell you that you
should drive him from your thoughts. When he told me, all smiling,
that he had come down here to ask your cousin Mary to be his wife, I
was almost minded to spurn him from the door. He can have no feeling
himself of true attachment, and cannot know what it means in others.
He is heartless,--and unprincipled."

"Oh, papa, spare him. It is done now."

"And you will forget him, dearest?"

"I will try, papa. But I think that I shall die. I would rather die.
What is the good of living when nobody is to care for anybody, and
people are so bad as that?"

"My Clarissa must not say that nobody cares for her. Has any person
ever been false to you but he? Is not your sister true to you?"

"Yes, papa."

"And Mary?"

"Yes, papa." He was afraid to ask her whether he also had not been
true to her? Even in that moment there arose in his mind a doubt,
whether all this evil might not have been avoided, had he contented
himself to live beneath the same roof with his children. He said
nothing of himself, but she supplied the want. "I know you love me,
papa, and have always been good to me. I did not mean that. But I
never cared for any one but him,--in that way."

Sir Thomas, in dealing with the character of his