In view of this, was it not rather a source of secret satisfaction to look ahead to the possibility of his daughter's future? Matthew's father was the most wealthy man in town, and president of the bank in which the doctor held a large amount of stock. Matthew would probably succeed his father in a few years, and would not only be very rich, but would be connected with a very desirable business—that of banking.
Dr. Dutton, like almost every other man, would have been proud to have his daughter become the wife of a wealthy and promising young man, and, so far as he knew, Matthew bade fair to become such. To be sure, people said he was a little wild, but that would wear away.
"He, of course, like many other boys, had to sow a few wild oats," said the doctor to himself, when he had been thinking of the subject, "but he will come out all right."
Herein the doctor erred in his judgment, for the sowing of "wild oats," so called, is never safe; and it has been the dangerous license granted to thousands and thousands of boys which has caused their ruin.
Whatever a boy practises becomes after a time a habit; and the rooting up of such a habit is a matter that requires no little attention and force of will. The average person finds himself unable to grapple successfully with what has at last become a second nature, thus proving beyond peradventure that it is never safe to tamper with anything that is evil.
I would not wish to give the impression that Dr. Dutton knew how corrupt Matthew was. He simply overlooked the boy's evil tendency; but when he came to listen to Mr. Farrington's story, which went into the details and related in full all that occurred in the barroom, and then described the contemptibly mean trick of enticing Fred to his house with the promise of entering with him, it put quite another face on the matter. Moreover, it raised Fred to a height in the doctor's estimation which contrasted strongly with the depth to which Matthew sank.