You gabble of conscience
and truth, but isn't it a new passion with you--conscience and truth?"
He leaned over the table and fastened the minister's eyes with his own.
"Had you the same love of conscience and truth at Radley?"
A whiteness passed over the flabby face, and the beady eyes took on a
glazed look. Fight suddenly died out of them.
"You went on a missionary tour on the Ottawa River. At Radley you toiled
and rested from your toil--and feasted. The girl had no father or
brother, but her uncle was a railway-man. He heard where you were, and
he hired with my company to come out here as a foreman. He came to drop
on you. The day after he came he had a bad accident. I went to see him.
He told me all; his nerves were unstrung, you observe. He meant to ruin
you, as you ruined the girl. He had proofs enough. The girl herself is
in Winnipeg. Well, I know life, and I know man and man's follies and
temptations. I thought it a pity that a career and a life like yours
should be ruined--"
A groan broke from the twitching lips before him, and a heavy sweat stood
out on the round, rolling forehead.
"If the man spoke, I knew it would be all up with you, for the world is
very hard on men of God who fall.
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