ly interested in this business. Time was
when we thought alike touching the bwoy; now we doan't; 'cause your
knowledge of un hasn't grawed past the point wheer he downed us, an'
mine has."

"You're a fool to say so. D' you think I haven't watched the young
brute these many years? Self-sufficient, ignorant, hot-headed, always in
the wrong. What d' you find to praise in the clown? Look at his life.
Failure! failure! failure! and making of enemies at every turn. Where
would he be to-day but for you?"

"Theer 's a rare gert singleness of purpose 'bout un."

"A grand success he is, no doubt. I suppose you couldn't get on without
him now. Yet you cursed the cub freely enough once."

"Bitter speeches won't serve 'e, Grimbal; but they show me mighty clear
what's hid in you. Your sawl 's torn every way by this thing, an' you
turn an' turn again to it, like a dog to his vomit, yet the gude in 'e
drags 'e away."

"Better cut all that. You won't tell me what you've come for, so I'll
tell you. You want me to promise not to move in this matter,--is that
so?"

"Why, not ezackly. I want more 'n that. I never thought for a minute you
would do it, now you've let the time pass so far. I knaw you'll never
act so ugly a paart now; but Will doan 't, an' he'll never b'lieve me
if I told un."

The other made a sound, half growl, half mirthless laugh.

"You've taken it all for granted, then--you, who know more about what
's in my mind than I do myself? You're a fond old man; and if you'd
wanted to screw me up to the pitch of taking the necessary trouble, you
couldn't have gone a better way. I've been too busy to bother about the
young rascal of late or he'd lie in gaol now."

"Doan't say no such vain things! D' you think I caan't read what your
face speaks so plain? A man's eyes tell the truth awftener than what his
tongue does, for they 'm harder to break into lying. 'Tu busy'! You be
foul to the very brainpan wi' this job an' you knaw it."

"Is the hatred all on my side, d' you suppose? Curse the brute to hell!
And you'd have me eat humble-pie to the man who 's wrecked my life?"

"No such thing at all. All the hatred be on your side. He'd forgived 'e
clean. Even now, though you 'm fretting his guts to fiddlestrings
because of waiting for 'e, he feels no malice--no more than the caged
rat feels 'gainst the man as be carrying him, anyway."

"You're wrong there. He'd kill me to-morrow. He let me know it. In a
weak moment I asked h