'I want to tell you the only fault I have to you.'
'Yes?'
'You don't do anything for the people in the house. Whether you believe in God or not, you ought to do what you can for your neighbour.'
He held that to help a neighbour is the strongest antidote to unbelief, and an open door out of the bad air of one's own troubles, as well.
De Fleuri laughed bitterly, and rubbed his hand up and down his empty pocket. It was a pitiable action. Falconer understood it.
'There are better things than money: sympathy, for instance. You could talk to them a little.'
'I have no sympathy, sir.'
'You would find you had, if you would let it out.'
'I should only make them more miserable. If I believed as you do, now, there might be some use.'
'There's that widow with her four children in the garret. The poor little things are tormented by the rats: couldn't you nail bits of wood over their holes?'