“Yes, bad enough. He is a wilful man, of a perverse and violent temper. His utterances of yesterday are in perfect accord with the spirit he displayed in youth. He broke his father’s heart.”
52“From his face one would never suspect that part of it–the violent temper. He appears to be a person of unusual cheerfulness and serenity,–most offensively serene at times.”
“Very possible, my child. One of the hardest things to learn, and we seldom achieve it in youth, is that outward appearances often bear no relation to the inner man,–that the most inviting face can hide a vicious nature.”
“Do you really think him a bad man? I mean thoroughly unprincipled and wicked? I don’t like him, but somehow it doesn’t seem as if he could be utterly bad, with such a face.”
“Ah, my daughter, be on your guard against those very things! Heed the voice of experience. Remember his career.”
“But what especial thing did he do? What drove him away from home?”
“In a fit of temper he tried to kill his father.”
“Really!”
“As an old friend of the family, I knew the circumstances.”
“Awful! How did it happen?”