ce of Charles Holland."

"And are not you?"

"Not so much as you, doubtless, are. The fact is, I never did entertain
a favourable opinion of the young man, and he knew it. I have been
accustomed to the study of human nature under a variety of aspects; I
have made it a matter of deep, and I may add, sorrowful, contemplation,
to study and remark those minor shades of character which commonly
escape observation wholly. And, I repeat, I always had a bad opinion of
Charles Holland, which he guessed, and hence he conceived a hatred to
me, which more than once, as you cannot but remember, showed itself in
little acts of opposition and hostility."

"You much surprise me."

"I expected to do so. But you cannot help remembering that at one time I
was on the point of leaving here solely on his account."

"You were so."

"Indeed I should have done so, but that I reasoned with myself upon the
subject, and subdued the impulse of the anger which some years ago, when
I had not seen so much of the world, would have guided me."

"But why did you not impart to us your suspicions? We should at least,
then, have been prepared for such a contingency as has occurred."

"Place yourself in my position, and then yourself what you would have
done. Suspicion is one of those hideous things which all men should be
most specially careful not only how they entertain at all, but how they
give expression to. Besides, whatever may be the amount of one's own
internal conviction with regard to the character of any one, there is
just a possibility that one may be wrong."

"True, true."

"That possibility ought to keep any one silent who has nothing but
suspicion to go upon, however cautious it may make him, as regards his
dealings with the individual. I only suspected from little minute shades
of character, that would peep out in spite of him, that Charles Holland
was not the honourable man he would fain have had everybody believe him
to be."

"And had you from the first such a feeling?"

"I had."

"It is very strange."

"Yes; and what is more strange still, is that he from the first seemed
to know it; and despite a caution which I could see he always kept
uppermost in his thoughts, he could not help speaking tartly to me at
times."

"I have noticed that," said George.

"You may depend it is a fact," added Marchdale, "that nothing so much
excites the deadly and desperate hatred of a man who is acting a
hypocritical part, as the suspici