"
"Confound--"
"Richard!"
"I beg your pardon, Phyllis. Be so good as to keep Harriet out of my
way. Yes; I had a letter--a most impertinent one, I think. Civilized
human beings usually wait for an invitation."
"Unless they imagine themselves going to a home."
"Home?"
"Yes. I think this is, in some sense, John's home. Mother always made
him welcome to it. Dear Richard, if it is foolish to meet troubles,
it is far more foolish to meet quarrels."
"I do not wish to quarrel, Phyllis; if John does not talk to you as
he ought not to talk. He ought to have more modesty than to ask you
to share such a home as he can offer you."
"Richard, dear, you are in a bad way. There is a trustees' meeting
to-night, and they are in trouble about dollars and cents; I would
go, if I were you."
"And have to help the deficiency?"
"Yes; when a man has been feeling unkindly, and talking unkindly, the
best of all atonements is to do a good deed."
"O, Phyllis! Phyllis!"
"Yes, Richard; and you will see the Bishop there, very likely; and
you can tell the good old man what is in your heart, and I know what
he will say. 'It is but fair and square, son Richard, to treat a man
kindly till he does you some wrong which deserves unkindness.' He will
say, 'Son Richard, if you have not the proofs upon which to blame a
man, don't blame him upon likelihoods.
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