'If romance softens the rough edge, you are welcome to it! I may as well go to bed!'
'Not romance—the sad reality of my poor father's history. I trust I shall never treat his wishes so lightly—'
Impatient of one-sided sympathy, James exclaimed, 'As if you did not give way to him like a slave!'
'Yes, like a slave,' said Louis, gravely. 'I wish to give way like a son who would try to comfort him for what he has undergone.'
'Now, I should have thought your feeling would have been for your mother!'
'If my mother could speak to me,' said Louis, with trembling lips, 'she would surely bid me to try my utmost, as far as in me lies, to bring peace and happiness to my father. I cannot tell where the errors may have been, and I will never ask. If she was as like to me as they say, I could understand some of them! At least, I know that I am doubly bound to give as little vexation to him as possible, and I trust that you will not make it harder to me. You lost your father so early, that you can hardly estimate—'
'The trial?' said James, willing to give what had passed the air of a joke.
'Exactly so—Good night.'