fered. Well, and what have I done? I see it now. I have made a fool
of myself, as I said in the beginning; and I have gone back, and asked
my father's pardon, and placed myself wholly in his hands--and he has
sent me to Hermiston," with a wretched smile, "for life, I suppose--and
what can I say? he strikes me as having done quite right, and let me off
better than I had deserved."

"My poor, dear boy!" observed Glenalmond. "My poor, dear and, if you
will allow me to say so, very foolish boy! You are only discovering
where you are; to one of your temperament, or of mine, a painful
discovery. The world was not made for us; it was made for ten hundred
millions of men, all different from each other and from us; there's no
royal road there, we just have to sclamber and tumble. Don't think that
I am at all disposed to be surprised; don't suppose that I ever think of
blaming you; indeed I rather admire! But there fall to be offered one or
two observations on the case which occur to me and which (if you will
listen to them dispassionately) may be the means of inducing you to view
the matter more calmly. First of all, I cannot acquit you of a good deal
of what is called intolerance. You seem to have been very much offended
because your father talks a little sculduddery after dinner, which it is
perfectly licit for him to do, and which (although I am not very fond of
it myself) appears to be entirely an affair of taste. Your father, I
scarcely like to remind you, since it is so trite a commonplace, is
older than yourself. At least, he is _major_ and _sui juris_, and may
please himself in the matter of his conversation. And, do you know, I
wonder if he might not have as good an answer against you and me? We say
we sometimes find him _coarse_, but I suspect he might retort that he
finds us always dull. Perhaps a relevant exception."

He beamed on Archie, but no smile could be elicited.

"And now," proceeded the judge, "for 'Archibald on Capital Punishment.'
This is a very plausible academic opinion; of course I do not and I
cannot hold it; but that's not to say that many able and excellent
persons have not done so in the past. Possibly, in the past also, I may
have a little dipped myself in the same heresy. My third client, or
possibly my fourth, was the means of a return in my opinions. I never
saw the man I more believed in; I would have put my hand in the fire; I
would have gone to the cross for him; and when it came to trial he