nd your father's, my counsel
has value, it is because they think I see things as they are. And that
means, first of all, that I know {43} myself for a man who committed a
crime, and is paying the penalty. I am satisfied to be paying it. As I
see justice, it is just. So, if I seem to wince at your necessary
allusions to it, that is part of the price. I don't want you to feel
that you are blundering or hurting me more than is necessary. You have
got to lay the thing before me as it is."

Something in the words, in the dry, patient manner, in the endurance
of the man's face, touched Oliver to the quick and made him feel all
manner of new things: such as a sense of the moral poise of the
universe, acquiescence in its retributions, and a curious pride, akin
to Ruth's own, in a man who could meet him after this fashion, in this
place.

"Thank you, Mr. Lannithorne," he said. "You see, it's this way, sir.
Mrs. Lannithorne says--"

{44}

And he went on eagerly to set forth his new problems as they had been
stated to him.

"Well, there you have it," he concluded at last. "For myself, the
things they said opened chasms and abysses. Mrs. Lannithorne seemed to
think I would hurt Ruth. My father seemed to think Ruth would hurt me.
Is married life something to be afraid of? When I look at Ruth, I am
sure everything is all right. It may be miserable for other people,
but how could it be miserable for Ruth and me?"

Peter Lannithorne looked at the young man long and thoughtfully again
before he answered. Oliver felt himself measured and estimated, but
not found wanting. When the man spoke, it was slowly and with
difficulty, as if the habit of intimate, convincing speech had been so
long disused that {45} the effort was painful. The sentences seemed
wrung out of him, one by one.

"They have n't the point of view," he said. "It is life that is the
great adventure. Not love, not marriage, not business. They are just
chapters in the book. The main thing is to take the road fearlessly,
to have courage to live one's life."

"Courage?"

Lannithorne nodded.

"That is the great word. Don't you see what ails your father's point
of view, and my wife's? One wants absolute security in one way for
Ruth; the other wants absolute security in another way for you. And
security--why, it's just the one thing a human being can't have, the
thing that's the damnation of him if he gets it! The reason it is so
hard for a rich man to enter the kin