'But, my father, don't you understand? It shows that my duty lies outside these walls.'
'In supposing it to lie along the broad road, you have again had predecessors.'
'My presence here may be the occasion of actual sin; indeed, if I construe what is written there aright, it already is. If that statement is correct, it points to fraud--to crime. Advantage has been taken of my continued absence--my silence. An impostor has arisen. Have I done right in allowing those who have charge of my possessions to remain in ignorance? Have I not put temptation in their path, and so sinned?'
'All this may be remedied by half-a-dozen lines upon a sheet of paper.'
'My father, I must go. Without, I shall be as much your son as I am within.'
'You think it.'
'I swear it.'
'Swear not at all. Oaths in your mouth are apt to be but vain repetitions. What have you not sworn within the last five years? How much more would you have sworn if I had sanctioned it?' The Englishman was still. 'My son, I ask myself if you are an unconscious hypocrite. Men say that hypocrisy is, in a peculiar sense, your national vice. When I consider you, I wonder. I believe--I will give you so much credit--I believe that you mean what you say; although I know, if you don't, that you mean something altogether different.'
'I swear at least this much, that within a week of my reaching England fifty thousand pounds shall be paid to your credit.'
'Fifty thousand pounds? It is a large sum of money. I know that your family has riches, and that you are a great man in your own land. Your country should be proud of you.'