'Absolutely. Why?'
'I was wondering how it would appeal to your father. You remember you said that you would never benefit by, or participate in, any gain made by drink, and your father has made most of his money as a brewer and distiller. I wondered how you regarded it now?'
'That is quickly settled,' he replied; 'I shall not benefit by it, of course.'
'Do you mean that?'
'Of course I mean it. Mind, I don't want it talked about,—that is a matter between my father and my own conscience, and one can't talk about such things freely.'
'Surely you are very foolish,' I said. 'Why should you not use the money which will naturally come to you?'
'I don't say I won't use it,' he replied, 'but I will not benefit by it.'
'You mean, then——?'
'I mean that I was a poor man, with nothing but my pay, and that I am a poor man, with nothing but my pay. Thinking as I think, and feeling as I feel, I could not become a rich man by money got in—that is, by such means.'
He spoke quietly and naturally, although he seemed a little surprised by my question.