"So much the worse, sir. He is ten times as hard as Stopper."
"He will not be willing to disgrace his own family, though."
"I know what he will do. He will make it a condition that I shall give up Lucy. But I will go to prison before I will do that. Not that it will make any difference in the end, for Lucy won't have a word to say to me now. She bore all that woman could bear. But she shall give me up—she has given me up, of course; but I will never give her up that way."
"That's right, my boy. Well, what do you say to it?"
Tom was struggling with himself. With a sudden resolve, the source of which he could not tell, he said, "I will, sir." With a new light in his face he added, "What next?"
"Then you must go to your father."
"That is far worse. I am afraid I can't."
"You must—if you should not find a word to say when you go—if you should fall in a faint on the floor when you try."
"I will, sir. Am I to tell him everything?"