"That doesn't help us much. But, by Jove! how Furlonger must hate him!"
"We don't know he was Furlonger."
"He must have been; it's just the thing a ticket-of-leave convict would do—try to victimise an innocent-looking girl."
"I'm not innocent-looking!" cried Tony indignantly.
"Well, I shan't argue the point with you. You must have looked pretty green for him to have said what he did. By the way, what was Furlonger locked up for, father?"
"Something to do with the Wickham Rubber Companies. Farming wasn't good enough for him, so he took to finance—with the result that the whole family was ruined; had to sell all their land, except a few inches round the house—and the young man got three years in gaol into the bargain."
"Wickham got ten—so Furlonger can't be as bad as Wickham."
"He's a rotten scoundrel, I tell you. Diddled thousands of respectable people out of their money. Then put up the most brazen defence—said that at the beginning he had no idea of the unsoundness of the scheme; 'at the beginning,' mark you—confesses quite coolly that he knew it was a fraud before the end."
"Well, I think it rather sporting of him," said Awdrey.
"He may have a beautiful soul," murmured Lady Strife; "why do people always look at actions rather than motives? Poor young Furlonger may have sinned more divinely than many pray. It's motive that makes all the difference. Motive may make the robbing of a till a far finer action than the endowing of a church."