'
'I beg your pardon. They don't like it. Only they forget it sooner
than we do.'
'Why do you say we, sir? You don't know anything of that sort.'
'The heart knows its own bitterness, De Fleuri--and finds it enough,
I dare say.'
The weaver was silent for a moment. When he spoke again, there was
a touch of tenderness in his respect.
'Will you go and see my poor Katey, sir?'
'Would she like to see me?'
'It does her good to see you. I never let that fellow go near her.
He may worry me as he pleases; but she shall die in peace. That is
all I can do for her.'
'Do you still persist in refusing help--for your daughter--I don't
mean for yourself?'
Not believing in God, De Fleuri would not be obliged to his fellow.
Falconer had never met with a similar instance.
'I do. I won't kill her, and I won't kill myself: I am not bound to
accept charity. It's all right. I only want to leave the whole
affair behind; and I sincerely hope there's nothing to come after.
If I were God, I should be ashamed of such a mess of a world.'
'Well, no doubt you would have made something more to your mind--and
better, too, if all you see were all there is to be seen. But I
didn't send that bore away to bore you myself. I'm going to see
Katey.'
'Very well, sir. I won't go up with you, for I won't interfere with
what you think proper to say to her.'
'That's rather like faith somewhere!' thought Falconer. 'Could that
man fail to believe in Jesus Christ if he only saw him--anything
like as he is?'
Katey lay in a room overhead; for though he lacked food, this man
contrived to pay for a separate room for his daughter, whom he
treated with far more respect than many gentlemen treat their wives.
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