“But is it possible? I never knew I had a grandfather.”
“Ay, ay, I see how it is,” replied Jerry; “I'm a poor man, and you are apeing the gentleman. But I risked my life once to be revenged for you, only some busy meddler came across and baulked me. I'll do it yet though; and I want you to help me. The cause is yours as well as mine; for the injury is of a mother to you, though of a daughter to me: and the man who will not defend his mother's honour, or revenge her disgrace, ought to be cast into the bottomless pit for everlasting!”
Colin stood astonished at this speech. He scarcely knew what he said, but faltered out, “Who, sir, has dared to say anything to my mother's dishonour, or to bring her into any disgrace?”
The old man tapped him with serious significance on the shoulder as he replied, “Your father, my boy,—your father!”
“How!” exclaimed the young man in a tone of deep excitement: “who is he? for I never knew who was my father.”
“You!” replied Jerry bitterly, “ought never to have been born!”
“What can you mean, man, by all this?” demanded Colin.
“I tell you,” answered the old man, “your father is a villain, and you—you are—but never mind. Since you are born, and are alive, show that you are worthy to live by properly resenting your mother's everlasting injuries. My vengeance has been untiring, but it has not succeeded yet. Together we can do anything. True, the man must be called, as he is, your father. What then? The punishment of such fathers cannot come from better hands than their own sons. As they sow the wind, let them reap the whirlwind.”
“What is it?” demanded Colin, interrupting him, “that you would propose to me?”
“See you,” said the old man, drawing closer, “you are in love with a girl, named Fanny Woodruff. Nay, nay, do not interrupt me, I know better than you do. I tell you you love her, and can never marry any one else. Her father is confined as a madman. He is now in my power. I am his keeper. You want to liberate him, and rightly too. He has told me all about it, and I believe him. Now, let me see the spirit of a true man in you; take up your mothers cause, and never forgive till you are revenged, and he shall by me be set at liberty. Join hand and heart with me against the villain called your father.”