, me, and others twenty times better than myself! Alas, alas! those
who condemn men to this fearful association little think that they
expose their fellow creatures to breathe an air laden with the direst
moral contagion, and inevitably fatal to every right or honourable
feeling!"

"Pray do not go on so! You know not how you grieve me!"

"Nay, I but wished to explain to you why I am daily more and more
melancholy. I wished not to have said so much, but I have only one way
of repaying the pity you have evinced for me."

"Pity? Pity? Indeed--"

"Pardon me for interrupting you, but the only way by which I can acquit
myself towards you is to speak with perfect candour; and, with
shuddering alarm, I confess that I am no longer the same person I was.
In vain do I fly these unfortunate wretches, their very presence, their
contact seems to take effect on me; in spite of myself, I seem to feel a
fatal influence in breathing the same atmosphere, as though the moral
pestilence entered at every pore, and rested not till it had mingled
with the heart's blood. Should I even be acquitted on my trial, the very
sight of, and association with, good and virtuous men would cover me
with shame and confusion; for, though I have not yet been able to find
pleasure in the society of my companions, I have, at least, learned to
dread the day when I shall again mix with persons of respectability,
because now I am conscious of my weakness and cowardice; for is not he
guilty of both who dares to make a compromise with his duties or his
honesty? And have not I done so? When I first came here I did not
deceive myself as to the extent of my fault, however excusable the
circumstances under which it was committed might have seemed to make it;
but now it appears to me an offence of a trifling description when
compared with the crimes of which the robbers and murderers by whom I am
surrounded make daily boast. And I sometimes surprise myself envying
their audacious indifference, and blaming myself with my own weak
regrets for so insignificant an action."

"And so it was an insignificant action, far more generous than wrong.
Why, what did you do but borrow for a few hours a sum of money you knew
you could replace on the following morning; and that, too, not for
yourself, but to save a whole family from ruin, perhaps death."

"That matters not, it was a theft in the eyes of the law and all honest
men. Doubtless it is better to rob with a good motive th