"But, father, you are unjust to me. You don't understand."
"What don't I understand?"
"What was in my thought."
"It's not a thing I'm at all anxious to understand," he retorted grimly.
"But you must. I won't be condemned unheard."
"But you condemned me unheard."
This was a shaft that drew blood. It was true, Arthur knew it to be true; he had taken the word of other people against his father.
"There were circumstances——" he began.
"Circumstances? Every fool pleads circumstances," Masterman interrupted. "Give it the right name, you that are so honest, and say lying gossip."
"No, it was not gossip, father."