Page:The Unspeakable Gentleman (IA unspeakablegent00marq).pdf/267

 Your palate is unused yet to gall and worm-wood. Only wait, my son"

He raised his hand slowly, as though tilting an imaginary glass to his lips.

"Only wait. They will offer you the cup some day, and we were always heavy drinkers. Pray God that you will stand it with a better grace than I—that you will forget the sting and rancor of it, and not carry it with you through the years."

His eyes grew brighter as he spoke, and his features were suddenly mobile and expressive.

"She said she believed it. She threw their lies in my face. She lashed me with them, and my blood was hotter then than now. She would not listen, and I forgot it was a woman's way. How was I to know it was only impulse? I ask you—how was I to know? Was I a man to crawl back, and ask her forgiveness, to offer some miserable excuse she would not credit? And you, brought into manhood to believe I was a thief—was I to stand your flinging back my denial? Was I to pose as the picture of injured innocence, and beg you the favor of believing? I would not have expected it of you, my son. By heaven, it would have stuck in my throat. I had