Part 98 (1/2)
”Ah! you 're like me then! I don't care much about going to heaven!
What do you care about?”
”The will of G.o.d. I hope your lords.h.i.+p will say the same.”
”No I won't. I want my own will.”
”Well, that is to be had, my lord.”
”How?”
”By taking his for yours, as the better of the two, which it must be every way.”
”That's all moons.h.i.+ne.”
”It is light, my lord.”
”Well, I don't mind confessing, if I am to die, I should prefer heaven to the other place; but I trust I have no chance of either.
Do you now honestly believe there are two such places?”
”I don't know, my lord.”
”You don't know! And you come here to comfort a dying man!”
”Your lords.h.i.+p must first tell me what you mean by 'two such places.'
And as to comfort, going by my notions, I cannot tell which you would be more or less comfortable in; and that, I presume, would be the main point with your lords.h.i.+p.”
”And what, pray, sir, would be the main point with you?”
”To get nearer to G.o.d.”
”Well--I can't say I want to get nearer to G.o.d. It 's little he 's ever done for me.”
”It's a good deal he has tried to do for you, my lord.”
”Well, who interfered? Who stood in his way, then?”
”Yourself, my lord.”
”I wasn't aware of it. When did he ever try to do anything for me, and I stood in his way?”
”When he gave you one of the loveliest of women, my lord,” said Mr Graham, with solemn, faltering voice, ”and you left her to die in neglect, and the child to be brought up by strangers.”
The marquis gave a cry. The unexpected answer had roused the slowly gnawing death, and made it bite deeper.
”What have you to do,” he almost screamed, ”with my affairs? It was for me to introduce what I chose of them. You presume.”
”Pardon me, my lord: you led me to what I was bound to say. Shall I leave you, my lord?”
The marquis made no answer.