'But he is your nearest relative.'
Mr. Pennycomequick was silent. He returned to his chair and reseated himself; not now leaning back, with his arms folded on his breast, but bent forward, with his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.
He looked into the fire. After full five minutes' silence he said, in a tone of self-justification:
'I can never forgive my half-brother Nicholas.'
'Yet he is dead,' said the girl.
There was no accent of reproach in her voice; nevertheless Jeremiah took her words as conveying a reproach.
'I do not mean,' he said apologetically, 'that I allowed him to die unforgiven, but that his conduct was inexcusable. I have pardoned the man, but I cannot forgive his act.'
'Philip, however,' said Salome, 'is the son of the man, and not of his mistake.'
Jeremiah was touched, and winced; but he would not show it.
'My brother Nicholas acted in such a manner as to produce an estrangement that has, and will have, lastingly influenced our relations. Philip I saw at his father's funeral, which I attended—which,' he repeated the sentence, 'which I attended.'