Page:What Will He Do With It? - Routledge - Volume 2.djvu/286

 dwell when I took to myself your awful burthen--I thought to resign her charge for ever in this world. Think not that I will fly her now, when you invade. No--since my prayers will not move you--since my sacrifice to you has been so fruitless--since my absence from herself does not attain its end there, where you find her, shall you again meet me! And if there we meet, and you come with the intent to destroy her peace and blast her fortune, then I, William Losely, am no more the felon. In the face of day I will proclaim the truth, and say, 'Robber, change place in earth's scorn with me; stand in the dock, where thy father stood in vain to save thee!"'

"Bah, sir--too late now; who would listen to you?"

"All who have once known me--all will listen. Friends of power and station will take up my cause. There will be fresh inquiry into facts that I held back--evidence that, in pleading guilty, I suppressed--ungrateful one--to ward away suspicion from you."

"Say what you will," said Jasper swaying his massive form to and fro, with a rolling gesture which spoke of cold defiance, "I am no hypocrite in fair repute whom such threats would frighten. If you choose to thwart me in what I always held my last resource for meat and drink, I must stand in the dock even, perhaps, on a heavier charge than one so stale. Each for himself; do your worst--what does it matter?"

"What does it matter that a father should accuse his son! No, no--son, son, son--this must not be;--let it not be!--let me complete my martyrdom! I ask no reversal of man's decree, except before the Divine Tribunal. Jasper, Jasper--child of my love, spare the sole thing left to fill up the chasms in the heart that you laid waste. Speak not of starving, or of fresh crime. Stay--share this refuge! I WILL WORK FOR BOTH!"

Once more, and this time thoroughly, Jasper's hideous levity and coarse bravado gave way before the lingering human sentiment knitting him back to childhood, which the sight and voice of his injured father had called forth with spasms and throes, as a seer calls the long-buried from a grave. And as the old man extended his arms pleadingly towards him, Jasper, with a gasping sound-half groan, half sob-sprang forward, caught both the hands in his own strong grasp, lifted them to his lips, kissed them, and