“You have given expression to the request which I was about to make to you just now. After a moment’s consideration I withheld it: I remembered that you were an Irishman, and therefore that there was no need for me to ask you to remain silent in regard to an incident of which you were the hero. Mr. Sheridan, I will respect your wishes. Miss Linley shall not, unless I find reason to act differently, hear of your heroism through me.”
“Oh, sir—heroism! that is too strong a word,” said Dick.
“Perhaps it is, considering that it was only my life that you saved. Well, we shall say your good-fortune. Will you accept the compromise?”
“Gladly, sir: I shall always think of the incident as the most fortunate of my life.”
“And I hope that neither of us, nor Miss Linley, will ever have occasion to think of it as otherwise; and so I wish you good-night again, my dear boy—my dear boy.”
He gave Dick his hand once more, and Dick felt his fingers pressed with more warmth than he had ever received from his own father.
He rather wished that Mr. Long was his father.