“Oh! but it will—it must be cleared! I know it will! It is faithless to think that injustice is not always set right!”
“Not always here,” said Julius, sadly. “See, there’s the Backsworth race-ground, the great focus of the evil.”
“Were racing debts thought to have any part in the disaster?”
“That I can’t tell; but it was those races that brought George Proudfoot under the Vivian influence; and in the absence of all of us, poor Archie, when left to himself after his mother’s death, had become enough mixed up in their amusements to give a handle to those who thought him unsteady.”
“As if any one must be unsteady who goes to the races!” cried Rosamond. “You were so liberal about balls, I did expect one little good word for races; instead of which, you are declaring a poor wretch who goes to them capable of embezzling two thousand pounds, and I dare say Anne agrees with you!”
“Now, did I ever say so, Anne?”
“You looked at the course with pious horror, and said it justified the suspicion!” persisted Rosamond.
“That’s better,” said Julius; “though I never even said it justified the suspicion, any more than I said that balls might not easily be overdone, especially by some people.”
“But you don’t defend races?” said Anne.
“No; I think the mischief they do is more extensive, and has less mitigation than is the case with any other public amusement.”