, that I am very anxious to be of any use to you that I can. You
know that you refused to see me before.'

'And it is no great compliment now; this confounded place will kill me.
I have been haunted by spectres all the night, five thousand times worse
than a voyage to Australia. That will be amusing, ha! ha! But to have my
father in one corner, and--and Netta in the other,--and that cursed
money rolling about everywhere, just as it did--well, never mind that!
but hanging outright would have been better. Don't preach; it is no
good; I am far beyond that, and I know you have your sermon ready; but
your presence is some relief after such a night. I tell you what it is,
Rowland, if you are a better and a happier man than I, it is because you
had honest parents; it is no merit of yours, and no fault of mine.'

'Howel, I claim no merit; but we are all responsible for our own
actions, God forgive those who set a bad example: they will have to
answer for it.'

'Pshaw! Do you think I meant that? I mean that if my father hadn't
heaped up all that gold--bah! the word makes me sick,--and denied me a
sixpence whilst he lived; and if I hadn't seen my mother rob him
whenever she could, and learnt from her to do the same, I shouldn't be
here now! No, I should be a plodding shopkeeper, or at least a country
lawyer, or doctor, and should have been living in a house with three
steps to it, and a portico, by this time, with--don't suppose I regret
such a house--but Netta! oh, God! Netta!'

Howel beat his forehead with his hand, and pointed to the corner of his
cell.

'There she is! there she has been all the night. Pale as when I laid her
on her bed that miserable day!'

'Howel! you loved Netta, I see, and believe it now,' said Rowland.

'You do! And why not before? Ah! I see. Because I have never done
anything to prove it. But I did not know how I loved her until I knew
how she loved me.'

'Would you prove it now, if you could?'

'Would I? Why do you mock me by such a question?'

'Because she, being dead, yet speaks. Her last wishes, thoughts, words,
writing, were for you.'

'Do I not know it? Have I not read? All night have her words not haunted
me?'

'And her prayers, Howel? Shall they be forgotten? And that Book in which
she wrote last, will you not read it?'

'I don't know. I tried last night, and I could not. I have never read
the book since I wrote Greek at school.'

'Netta begged you to read it.'

'What is that