Page:Harold Macgrath--The girl in his house.djvu/142

 "No. And so I came back here."

"Where you hatched your abominable crime."

"Abominable. Yet, I divided with you. You are still in comfortable circumstances. You are on the way to become a man"—with an ironical smile.

"But my home—the things I treasured! You robbed me and cheated the other man."

"No doubt I am one of the damned." Bordman spoke as if carefully guarding his voice, his breath. "Let us be calm. Don't excite me. Another hemorrhage and I am done for; and I must make use of my time.  Conscience is a strange thing. It drove me; I could not resist it.  So here I am."

"I forgive you, Bordman, if that will ease you any." "You forgive?"

"Yes. Only, you must restore what you took, or what is left of it. What a joke! You rooked me. I ought to curse you, and yet I feel more inclined to bless you."

The old man's lips moved, but no sound came through them.