“And endowing it.”
“Will you listen to me, Hopper?”
“They think they can cheat God with their sham repentance. Ha! ha! ha!—it’s a rare joke, ’pon my word. Now, you know, Max, I’m just such a fool in my way, for I get thinking He’d have more respect for an honest old reprobate like me. But we shall see, Max, when we die—when we die; when you die, and the gravedigger puts you to bed with a shovel.”
A spasm seemed to shoot across the other’s face at these last words.
“I am an out-and-out bad one, you know, Max. I never go to chapel and hold the plate—never dip a little out of it, Max, in the vestry!”
“Man, are you the Devil?” muttered Max.
“Yes, if you like.”
“Then you are not deaf!” cried Max triumphantly.
“Honestly; but I can read your lips as well as your heart, my dear friend. Devil? Because I know about that ugly bit of forgery for which you ought to have served your time.”
“Will you be silent?” cried Max, with an agonised look at the door.