themselves.

They sat one day drawn thus close together, sipping and theorizing,
speculating upon the nature of things in an easy, bold, sophomoric way,
the conversation for the most part being in French, the native tongue of
the doctor and priest, and spoken with facility by Jean Thompson the
lawyer, who was half Americain; but running sometimes into English and
sometimes into mild laughter. Mention had been made of the absentee.

Pere Jerome advanced an idea something like this:

"It is impossible for any finite mind to fix the degree of criminality
of any human act or of any human life. The Infinite One alone can know
how much of our sin is chargeable to us, and how much to our brothers or
our fathers. We all participate in one another's sins. There is a
community of responsibility attaching to every misdeed. No human since
Adam--nay, nor Adam himself--ever sinned entirely to himself. And so I
never am called upon to contemplate a crime or a criminal but I feel my
conscience pointing at me as one of the accessories."

"In a word," said Evariste Varrillat, the physician, "you think we are
partly to blame for the omission of many of your Paternosters, eh?"

Father Jerome smiled.

"No; a man cannot plead so in his own defense; our first father tried
that, but the plea was not allowed. But, now, there is our absent
friend. I tell you truly this whole community ought to be recognized as
partners in his moral errors. Among another people, reared under wiser
care and with better companions, how different might he not have been!
How can _we_ speak of him as a law-breaker who might have saved him from
that name?" Here the speaker turned to Jean Thompson, and changed his
speech to English. "A lady sez to me to-day: 'Pere Jerome, 'ow dat is a
dreadfool dat 'e gone at de coas' of Cuba to be one corsair! Aint it?'
'Ah, Madame,' I sez, ''tis a terrible! I'ope de good God will fo'give me
an' you fo' dat!'"

Jean Thompson answered quickly:

"You should not have let her say that."

"_Mais_, fo' w'y?"

"Why, because, if you are partly responsible, you ought so much the
more to do what you can to shield his reputation. You should have
said,"--the attorney changed to French,--"'He is no pirate; he has
merely taken out letters of marque and reprisal under the flag of the
republic of Carthagena!'"

"_Ah, bah_!" exclaimed Doctor Varrillat, and both he and his
brother-in-law, the priest, laughed.

"Why not?" demanded Thompson