can try."

"Yes, you could have tried yesterday and the day before, and a week ago,
when they needed your sympathy."

He dropped his switch, but he caught it up again, and his face was red.
"I might say, sir, that what I have done and that which I have failed to
do is no business of yours, but I feel that there is a measure of
justice in what you say, and I acknowledge that I have been wrong. That
is why I am here now--to set myself right."

"In matters of business we may correct an error, Mr. Lundsford; we may
rub out one figure and put down another, but a mark made upon the heart
is likely to remain there."

"I will not attempt to bandy sentimentalities with you, sir. I am a
practical man, a scientist, if you wish; and I came here to tell that
girl that my breaking off the engagement--you must know all about
it--was wrong. I told my father to come, for just at that time I didn't
feel that as a man who looks forward to something a little more than a
name I could afford to marry her. But I was wrong; any living man could
afford to marry her. I was wrong, and that ought to settle it."

"And I think, sir, that it does settle it as far as you are concerned."

"Do you mean that she won't marry me? Oh, yes, she will, not out of any
foolish love, but because she would be proud of my success. Well, I may
not overtake her, but I will write to her. Yes, that will do as well.
She will want to know how things are getting along here, and will write
to you, and when she does I wish you would show me her letter. What are
you laughing at? Haven't you got any sense at all?"

"I hope so, but I am not so much of a scientist that I am a fool."

"No, but you are so much of a fool that you are not a scientist, by a
d----d sight."

He had me there, and it was his time to laugh, and he did. He was so
tickled that he roared, walking up and down the passage; and he was so
pleased that he held out his hand to shake upon the merit of his joke. I
was not disposed to be surly and I shook hands with him, and he clapped
me on the shoulder, still laughing, and declared that it was a piece of
wit worthy of the dissecting-room, and that he would jolt his fellows
with it.

"I am glad you are so much pleased," I remarked.

"Why, don't you think it's good, eh? Of course, you do. Well, it's
better to part laughing, anyway."

"You are not too much of a scientist to be a philosopher," I said. And I
expected him to continue his line of deduction