“Stop him?”
“Ay, or be in such a hurry to return the money? It is no fault of ours if it does come to our hands. And, remember, if it lies with us only a week”—he looked at his son, his face troubled—“only a week, the position is such——”
“No! no!” Clement cried, and for once he spoke preemptorily. “Not for a day, father, not for an hour! And when you have thought it over as I have, when you have had time to think it over, you will see that. You will be the first, the very first, to see that, and to say that we must have no part or share with Bourdillon in this; that if we must go down we will go down with clean hands. To avail ourselves of this money, even for a day, and though it would save the bank twice over, would be to make us accomplices——”
The banker stood up. “Right!” he said firmly. “You are right, lad!” He drew a deep breath, the color returned to his face. He laid his hand on Clement’s shoulder. “You are quite right, my boy, and I wasn’t myself when I said that. You shall have no reason to blush for your father. You are quite right. We will repudiate the transaction from the first. We will have neither art nor part in it. We will return the money the moment it comes into your hands!”
“Thank God, sir, that you see it as I do.”
“I do, I do! The money shall be paid over at once, though the shutters go up the next hour. And we will fight our battle as we must have fought it if this had never happened.”
“With clean hands, at any rate, sir.”
“Yes, lad, with clean hands.”
“Oh, father, that’s splendid!” Betty cried, and she pressed herself against him. “But as for Clement going, he must be worn out. Could not Mr. Rodd go?”
“Rodd will be of more use to you here,” Clement said. “You will be short-handed as it is.”