He did not add “good conduct,” but he meant it.
“How much richer shouldst thou have been, Hans, if thou hadst never beheld me?” was the answer.
“I should have been poorer, by the loss of the only brother I ever had.”
There was more feeling in Aubrey’s look than Hans was wont to see, and an amount of tenderness in his tone which he had no idea how it astonished Hans to hear.
“My brother,” he said, “you have had your revenge, and it is terrible.”
Hans looked, as he felt, honestly surprised. It was his nature to remember vividly benefits received, but to forget those which he conferred.
“Dost thou not know?” said Aubrey, reading the look. “After my unworthy conduct toward thee, that thou shouldst take my debts upon thine own—”
“Prithee, shut thy mouth,” answered Hans with a laugh, “and make me not to blush by blowing the trumpet over that which but gave me a pleasure. I ensure thee, my brother,” he added more gravely, “that I had a sufficiency to cover all was a true contentment unto me. As to revenge, no such thought ever crossed my mind for a moment.”
“The revenge had been lesser if it were designed,” was the reply.
“And how goeth it with thee here?” asked Hans, not sorry to change the subject. “Art thou content with thy work?—and doth Mr Whitstable entreat thee well?”