n. "First you say I am
to advise you, then that I am to read this document and make any remarks
I like."

"Of course."

"Well then, I'll take you at your word. I advise you to draw your pen
right through that clause."

"Why? Hilary is an irreclaimable scamp."

"No, he is not."

"Not, eh? `St. Clair, St. Clair and Blachland.' Have you forgotten
that, Canon?" snorted Sir Luke. "_And_ Blachland! My nephew!"

"How long ago was that?"

"How long ago? Why, you know as well as I do. Six years. Rather over
than under."

"Yes. Six years is a long time. Time enough for a man to recognise
that he has made worse than a fool of himself. How do you know that
Hilary has not come to recognise that--is not doing all he can to wipe
out that sin?"

"Exactly. How do I know? That's just it. He has never had the grace
or decency to let me know that he has--to let me know whether he's dead
or alive." The other smiled to himself. "That's not the solitary one
of his carryings on, either. Yes. He's an out-and-out scamp."

"I don't agree with you, Canterby. The very fact that he has refrained
from communicating with you makes for the contrary. It is a sign of
grace. Had he been the scamp you--_don't_ believe him to be, you'd have
heard from him fast enough, with some pitiful appeal for assistance."

"But he ought to have let me hear. I might be thinking him dead."

"Well, the last thing you told him was that he ought to be. If I
recollect rightly, you strongly recommended him to go and blow his
brains out."

"Well, he didn't. He went off with the woman instead."

"That isn't to say he's with her now."

"I'm surprised at you, Canon," snorted Sir Luke. "Hanged if I ever
thought to find you defending--er--vice."

"And you haven't found me doing so yet. But everything has to be
determined on its own merits."

"But there aren't any merits in this case. It was a bad case, sir, a
rotten bad case."

"Well, we'll say demerits then, if you prefer it. Now there are, or
were, two extenuating circumstances in this particular one--the
personality of the woman, and--heredity. For the first I have seen her,
for the second, Hilary's father. You knew him pretty well, Canterby,
but I knew him even better than you did."

"But what would you have me do? I daren't put him into possession of
large responsibilities. He has disgraced his family as it is. I can't
have him coming here one day, and disgracing it f