“All right, Lorry. Say what you like. I will listen complacently enough, and of course if it concerns yourself, I will promise to be deeply interested. Can I say fairer than that?” he added, with a chuckle.
“Get away, do, with your nonsense. You do love to be satirical, but that is little to the purpose. You spoke of changing, Alf—for I still cling to the name by which I have known you so long—and that very word has strengthened me in my determination.”
“Your determination—eh?”
“Yes.”
“And what might that be—to reform? I hope you are not about to meet me with a long moral dissertation upon the past, the present, and the future?”
“And if I did, there would not be much harm in such a discourse. If I did wish to make reparation for the past by a brighter and less guilty future, there would be nothing to be astonished at.”
“Oh, wouldn’t there?” he remarked, carelessly.
“No, of course not.”
“Well, go on. Fire away.”
“Alf, I have been a thief ever since I can remember,” said his companion, “and, oh, how I bitterly repent the crimes which others taught me! How sincerely I desire to atone for them by a life of virtue and repentance!”