"You are very hard."
"I hope not. At any rate I can only say as I think. But, in truth, in the present emergency you have nothing to do with all that. If he asked you for counsel you might give it to him, but that is not his present position. He has told you his story, not in a spirit of repentance, but because such telling had become necessary."
"He would have told it all the same though this man had never come."
"Let us grant that it is so, there still remains his relation to you. He came here under false pretences, and has done you a serious injury."
"I think not," said the Doctor.
"Would you have taken him into your establishment had you known it all before? Certainly not. Therefore I say that he has deceived you. I do not advise you to speak to him with severity; but he should, I think, be made to know that you appreciate what he has done."
"And you would turn him off;—send him away at once, out about his business?"
"Certainly I would send him away."
"You think him such a reprobate that he should not be allowed to earn his bread anywhere?"
"I have not said so. I know nothing of his means of earning his bread. Men living in sin earn their bread constantly. But he certainly should not be allowed to earn his here."