"You had the boldness to write this canting—hypocritical—"
"Oh, Mr. Rushton!"
"You wrote it?"
"Yes, sir; and it is right, though I did'nt mean to write it—or know it."
"Very grand!"
"Sir?"
"You bring your wretched—"
"Oh, I did'nt know I wrote it even, sir! But indeed that is not right, sir. All of us ought to trust in God, however great our afflictions are, sir."
"Go!" cried the lawyer, rising with a furious gesture—"away, sir!
Preach not to me—you may be right—but take your sermons elsewhere.
Look there, sir! at that portrait!—look at me now, a broken
man—think that—but this is folly! Leave me to myself!"
And strangling a passionate sob, the lawyer sank again into his chair, covering his face.