"I am not asking for any favours," Rufus said, indifferently. "I am getting things straight for you with as little delay as possible."
"And I shall loathe myself for being compelled to receive the money when you are gone."
Rufus looked at him for a moment with a doubtful light in his eyes.
"Why, what can it matter to you?" he questioned. "I thought you were a man without sentiment."
"I am in the main. I am just a man of business, and nothing else. Yet there's no denying I am fond of you. You are a man of my own way of thinking. May I not say you are a disciple of mine?"
"You may say what you like," Sterne replied, with a hollow laugh. "I believe you helped to destroy some of the illusions of my youth."
"And therefore you are grateful to me, and I am interested in you."
"I am not sure that I am particularly grateful," Rufus said, wearily, "What is there to be grateful for?"
"What is there to be grateful for?" Muller questioned, raising his eyebrows. "Surely it is something to have got out of the fogs of superstition into the clear light of reason. To have escaped from the bondage of creeds into the freedom of humanity. To have discovered the true value and proportion of things, to have been delivered from all fear of the future——"
"Are we not playing with words and phrases?" Rufus questioned, suddenly.