He walked straight into Mr. Burns’s shop.
The jeweller did not know him at first; but the moment he spoke, recognized him. Cosmo had been dubious what his reception might be—after the way in which their intimacy had closed; but Mr. Burns held out his hand as if they had parted only the day before, and said,
“I thought of the two you would be here before Death! Man, you ought to give a body time.”
“Mr. Burns,” replied Cosmo, “I am very sorry I behaved to you as I did. I am not sorry I said what I did, for I am no less sure about that than I was then; but I am sorry I never came again to see you. Perhaps we did not quite understand on either side.”
“We shall understand each other better now, I fancy,” said Mr. Burns. “I am glad you have not changed your opinion, for I have changed mine. If it weren’t for you, I should be retired by this time, and you would have found another name over the door. But we’ll have a talk about all that. Allow me to ask you whither you are bound.”
“I am on my way home,” answered Cosmo. “I have not seen my father for several—for more than two years.”
“You’ll do me the honour to put up at my house to-night, will you not? I am a bachelor, as you know, but will do my best to make you comfortable.”
Cosmo gladly assented; and as it was now evening, Mr. Burns hastened the shutting of his shop; and in a few minutes they were seated at supper.
As soon as the servant left them, they turned to talk of divine righteousness in business; and thence to speak of the jeweller’s; after which Cosmo introduced that of the ring. Giving a short narrative of the finding of it, and explaining the position of Lady Joan with regard to it, so that his host might have no fear of compromising himself, he ended with telling him he had brought it to him, and with what object.
“I am extremely obliged to you, Mr. Warlock,” responded the jeweller, “for placing such confidence in me, and that notwithstanding the mistaken principles I used to advocate. I have seen a little farther since then, I am happy to say; and this is how it was: the words you then spoke, and I took so ill, would keep coming into my mind, and that at the most inconvenient moments, until at last I resolved to look the thing in the face, and think it fairly out. The result is, that, although I daresay nobody has recognized any difference in my way of doing business, there is one who must know a great difference: I now think of my neighbour’s side of the bargain as well as of my own, and abstain from doing what it would vex me to find I had not been sharp enough to prevent him from doing with me. In consequence, I am not so rich this day as I might otherwise have been, but I enjoy life more, and hope the days of my ignorance God has winked at.”