And yet he seemed the most dutiful and devoted of sons.
Is it possible that filial love could hold any place in a soul so lost
as his? It is difficult to solve this enigma.
Victor Carrington was ambitious; and to gain the object of his ambition
he was willing to steep his soul in guilt. But he was also cautious and
calculating, and he knew that to commit crime with impunity he must so
shape his life as to escape suspicion.
He knew that a devoted and affectionate son is always respected by good
men and women; and he had studied human nature too closely not to be
aware that there is more goodness than wickedness in the world, base
though some of earth's inhabitants may be.
The world is easily hoodwinked; and those who watched the life of the
young surgeon were ready to declare that he was a most deserving young
man.
He had his reward for this apparent excellence. Patients came to him
without his seeking; and at the time of Honoria Eversleigh's arrival in
London he had obtained a small but remunerative practice. The money
earned thus enabled him to live. The money he won by his pen in the
medical journals he was able to save.
He knew how necessary money was in all the turning-points of life, and
he denied himself every pleasure and every luxury in order to save a
sum which should serve him in time of need.
Matilda Carrington was one of those quiet women who seem to take no
interest in the world around them, and to be happy without the
pleasures which delight other women.
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