"This will be a protection to him should his son follow him into the
country, as he will then be able to assure him that if he proceeds to
violence suspicion will at once fall upon him, and he will be
arrested for his murder. But, indeed, the poor gentleman holds but
little to his life; and it was only on my representing to him that
this document might be the means of averting the commission of the
most terrible of all sins from the head of his son, that he agreed to
sign it. I gave him your message, and he prays me to say that, deeply
grateful as he and his wife are to you, not so much for the saving of
their lives, as for preventing their son's soul being stained by the
crime, they would indeed rather that you did not call for a time, for
they are so sorely shaken that they do not feel equal to seeing you.
You will not, I hope, take this amiss."
"By no means," Cyril replied; "it is but a natural feeling; and, in
truth, I myself am relieved that such is their decision, for it would
be well-nigh as painful to me as to them to see them again, and to
talk over the subject."
"By the way, Cyril, Mr. Harvey said that when you saw his son you
cried out his name, and that by the manner in which he turned upon
you it was clear that he had some cause for hating you. Is this so,
or was it merely his fancy?"
"It was no fancy, sir. It is not long since I thwarted his attempt to
carry off the daughter of a city merchant, to whom he had represented
himself as a nobleman.
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