"Yes," said James, "but I think you're right in the main. After all, the past is one's own—inalienably, forever! While the future is any man's....
"Of course you know," he went on after a pause, "that my past would have been nothing at all to me without you. It sounds funny, but it's true."
"Funny is the word," said Harry.
"But perfectly true. I should never have come through—all this business if it hadn't been for you."
"Look here, James, you're not going to thank me for saving your soul, are you? That would be a little forced!"
"My dear man, I'm not thanking you, I'm telling you! You were the one good thing I held on to; I was false and wicked in about every way I could be, but I did always try, in a sort of blind and blundering way, to be true to you. You've been—unconsciously if you will have it so—the best influence of my life, and I thought it might be well to tell you, that's all."
"Well, I won't pretend I'm not glad to hear it," said Harry soberly. "It is rather remarkable when you come to think of it," he went on after a moment, "how our lives have been bound up together. It's rather unusual with brothers, I imagine. Generally they see a good deal too much of each other during their early years and when they grow up they settle down into an acquaintanceship of a more or less cordial nature. But with us it's been different. Being apart during those early years, I suppose, made it necessary for us to rediscover each other when we grew up...."
"Yes," said James, "and the process of rediscovering had some rather lively passages in it, if I remember right."
"It did! But it was a good thing; it gave us a new interest in each other. One reason why people are commonly so much more enthusiastic about their friends than about their relations is because their relations are an accident, but their friends are a credit to them. It just shows what a selfish thing human nature is, I suppose."
"I see; a new way of being a credit to ourselves. Well, most of it's on my side, I imagine."