"If I tell my wife, she will be greatly distressed, because she is acquainted with the people concerned; and yet I feel that she ought to know. I'm rather at a loss what to do."
Drelincourt paused to follow with his eyes the flight of a butterfly which had found its way into the room.
Walter wondered what was coming next.
"Some little while ago," resumed Drelincourt, "a friend of mine, whom I may be said to have known all my life, was charged on his own confession--a confession he need never have made had he not voluntarily chosen to do so--with the commission of what by the majority of persons would doubtless be regarded as a crime of a very heinous kind; although it is to be presumed that, had he thought well to do so, he could have alleged some justification at least of the crime of which he was guilty. But be that as it may, having made a clean breast of it, there seemed no course left open to him but suicide."
"Suicide! Oh, Mr. Drelincourt!"
"That touches him!" whispered the latter to himself. Then aloud: "Life had become too bitter to him; he could endure it no longer. Well, he had one child, a daughter, who was engaged to be married at the time of her father's death; but after that event, the man to whom she was betrothed broke off the affair on the plea that it was impossible for him to wed the daughter of a criminal and a suicide."
"The mean scoundrel!"
"The double blow--the loss at once of her father and her lover (not to speak of the social stigma which will inevitably cling to her in time to come) has all but broken poor Lucy's heart. On the other hand, there is, of course, much to be urged from young Melville's point of view, and I have no doubt the majority of men would be inclined to do as he has done. Who can estimate the harm it might have done his future career had he married the daughter of a man who, rather than face the consequences of his crime, had preferred to put an end to himself! Yes, on further reflection, I am inclined to think that he behaved with admirable prudence."
"While I, if he were here, would brand him for the coward and despicable wretch he really is!" exclaimed Deane.
His cheeks were flushed, a fine indignation shone in his eyes; there could be no doubt of the sincerity with which he spoke. Nothing of all this was lost on the elder man.