Part 35 (1/2)
”And your ested experimentally
”She was an invalid for several years before I left ho my anticipation
(Have you ever noticed that the prodigal son of real life, in nineteen cases out of twenty, speaks spontaneously and feelingly of his father, with, perhaps, a dash of reverent humour; whereas, to quote Menenius, he no ht-year-old horse? This is cruel beyond measure, and unjust beyond comment; but, sad to say, it is true; and the platitudinous tract-liar, for the sake of verisimilitude, as well as of novelty, should st all the hard-cases of my acquaintance, I can only think of one whose mother's unseen presence is a power, and her , by-the-ith a decidedly inter the three 9ths yet to coal-Jack the Shellback, vassal of Runnymede Station--will not come within the scope of these memoirs)
Alf dreamily resumed his inconsequent story: ”However, this Charley Cross, or Yankee Charley, was an old Victorian digger About twelve years before his death, he orking on Inglewood, with a mate that he would have trusted, and did trust, to any extent, and in any way But it was the old, old story He got a friendly hint, and watched, and watched, for weeks, without betraying any suspicion At last he was satisfied
Then he carefully laid down his line of action, and followed it to the end
One day, his e of the shaft, ready to put his foot in the rope, suddenly overbalanced, and went down head-foremost Of course, Cross was close beside hiave the alarm, and, in the , like Bruce, to 'mak sicker'; for the shaft was only about forty feet deep But it happened that the ave his wife, and never breathed a word of his discovery or his vengeance; but in spite of this, the wo the next couple of years, luck favoured him, and he made an independence He invested his uarantee for do First, his two surviving children died of diphtheria; then his wife followed, dying, Cross assured me, of a broken heart
He sorrowed for her more deeply, perhaps, because she had cost him so dear; and this, no doubt, hat drove him to drink”
”Very probably,” I replied ”But, Alf, this taxing of youror boxing Are you a smoker?”
”No”
”That's what I feared Now, take ive yourself absolute rest, while I boil”----
”One more story, Collins, as well authenticated as any of the three I have told I knew a young fellow of between twenty-five and thirty”----
”This won't do,” I interposed firmly, for he had become restless and excited
”Why should you allow your mind to dwell so exclusively on the manifestations of one particular phase of moral aberration, and, to do bare justice to wohest and the very lowest classes? Unless you handle such questions in a scientific spirit, you'll find them--or unfortunately, you won't find the faculties in aover any one evil, however fatal that evil may be, naturally side-blinds the mind into a narrow fanaticis as it condemns; and you drift into the position of the man who strains at the moderate drinker, and ss the usurer
We see this in the Good Templar, the Social Purity person, the Trades Unionist, and the enerally Musonius Rufus sternly re the Capitol on fire”
”Have you done? ” asked Alf, coldly but gently ”Let me tell you one h----Theof was a saw-mill owner He had been married a couple of years, and had one child I could n't say that he actually loved his wife; in fact, she was n't a wo
At her very best, there was nothing in her; at her worst, she was ignorant, and vain, and utterly unprincipled--no, not exactly unprincipled, but non-principled She was essentially low--if you understand -- low in her tastes and aspirations, low in her likes and dislikes, low in her thoughts and her language, low in everything She may not have been what is called a bad woman, but--that miserable want of self-reverence-- I can't understand how----Would you give me another drink, please?”
He drank very little this tiard, hopeless look was intensifying in his face I began to suspect a te death was unreasonable, though not ominous; so also with the deterruity of the two associated notions set ravely; ”it's foolish to tax your memory for anecdotes now
Try if you can settle yourself to sleep I' yarns with you at some future time, when you're more fit”
”Listen, Collins,” he replied sullenly ”Our saw-limpse of the truth He was blind before; noas incredulous
He condescended to play the spy, and he was soon satisfied This time it was a Governabond, with interest at head-quarters--about the vilest rat, and certainly the vilest-looking rat, that ever breathed the breath of life Our hero took no further notice of him than to terrify hi the bla feature of the case was, that she, finding herself fairly run to earth, thought she had nothing to do but to turn froainst the other fellow But no, no Our hero, after thinking theher any voice in the new arrangee, and divided the proceeds with her; reserving to hih to start him in a line of life that he could folloithout the annoyance of being associated with anyone All that he earned afterward, beyond bare expenses, he forwarded to her, to save or squander as she pleased; the only condition being that she should acknowledge each remittance, and answer, as briefly as possible, such questions as he chose to ask She huiveness and reconciliation, somewhere in-time or eternity But, by God! she hed harshly, paused half-a-minute, and resuht of his little boy, only old enough to creep about, and incredibly fond of hih this never softened him towards the worthless, cursed mother Anyway, after about three years, the little boy died; and his heart was turned to stone
Still, through mere bitterness and obstinacy he followed the course he had adopted;with a run of success that surprised himself
The very curse that was on him seemed to protect him from the mishaps that befell otherfor the sake of hating and despising the whole hu hi a devil, when you feel yourself master of the situation, and--Now I've done, Collins”
”That's right I've been thinking how to fix things for you till you're able to”----