“Mind,” said Conyers, eagerly, “as there can be no offence intended, you'll not feel any by whatever I may say.”

“Go on,” said Tom, in the same dry tone.

“Ain't you obstinate?”

“I am.”

“I knew it. We had not talked half an hour together when I detected it, and I said to myself, 'That fellow is one so rooted in his own convictions, it is scarcely possible to shake him.'”

“What next?” asked Tom.

“You can't readily forgive an injury; you find it very hard to pardon the man who has wronged you.”

“I do not; if he did n't go on persecuting me, I would n't think of him at all.”

“Ah, that's a mistake. Well, I know you better than you know yourself; you do keep up the memory of an old grudge,—you can't help it.”

“Maybe so, but I never knew it.”