Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/180

170 temptation to steal a purse will rob men or women of their character. We have all the same vices, mother,"—he smiled,—"but we do not drop our h's. We drink champagne, they drink beer; we destroy reputations, they burgle houses; we have gold, therefore we have water to wash in; we are clean because we have amassed wealth, because we have robbed them of true comfort, sweated them, starved them, so that they built us our fortunes. Let me exchange my hard, cold money for flesh and blood!"

"You can leave me," Lady Osborne answered coldly. "I am tired of argument. I shall speak to you to-morrow. When you know what I have to say you will be better able to form your own speech." She turned from him. "How strange," she thought, "that, in spite of education and refined surroundings, his soul should be ever with the people he sprang from! How impossible it is to stamp out heredity!"

The young man, crestfallen, left the room. As the door closed after him, Lady Osborne's friend entered the room by the open French window.