"I shall be able, at least, to square that debt and start afresh, if that's what you mean. It's the greatest luck that ever came to a man. Congratulate me, old chap."
"I do congratulate you, from the bottom of my heart. You'll be able to square that debt, you say? Well, well, perhaps so—perhaps so."
"I feel as if a new life had been given me."
"Nonsense, nonsense, nonsense! We want no new lives. What should we do with new lives, when we don't know how to make use of those we've got? It's hell-fire for some of us, I tell you—hell-fire."
"Steady, old man, steady!"
"Listen to me, Cuthbert Ellison." He leaned over the counter, and dropped his voice to a whisper. "What's the worth of money when your immortal soul's in danger? Look at me and answer me that; look at me, I say. Stung with empoisonment and robed in fire, as somebody says:
"'What was their tale of someone on a summit?
Looking, I think, upon the endless sea;
One with a fate, and sworn to overcome it,
One who was fettered and who should be free.'"
He sawed the air with his hands, while Ellison gazed at him in complete astonishment.
"My dear fellow, what on earth's the matter with you?"
Murkard laughed nervously, and tried to pull himself together.