the letters and carried his
penitential headache to bed, was: "You see, Emmeline, it is useless to
base any system on a human being."

A very philosophical remark for one who has been busily at work building
for nearly twenty years. Too philosophical to seem genuine. It revealed
where the blow struck sharpest. Richard was no longer the Richard of his
creation--his pride and his joy--but simply a human being with the rest.
The bright star had sunk among the mass.

And yet, what had the young man done? And in what had the System failed?

The lady could not but ask herself this, while she condoled with the
offended father.

"My friend," she said, tenderly taking his hand before she retired, "I
know how deeply you must be grieved. I know what your disappointment
must be. I do not beg of you to forgive him now. You cannot doubt his
love for this young person, and according to his light, has he not
behaved honourably, and as you would have wished, rather than bring
her to shame? You will think of that. It has been an accident--a
misfortune--a terrible misfortune"...

"The God of this world is in the machine--not out of it," Sir Austin
interrupted her, and pressed her hand to get the good-night over.

At any other time her mind would have been arrested to admire the
phrase; now it seemed perverse, vain, false, and she was tempted to turn
the meaning that was in it against himself, much as she pitied him.

"You know, Emmeline," he added, "I believe very little in the fortune,
or misfortune, to which men attribute their successes and reverses. They
are useful impersonations to novelists; but my opinion is sufficiently
high of flesh and blood to believe that we make our own history
without intervention. Accidents?--Terrible misfortunes?--What are
they?--Good-night."

"Good-night," she said, looking sad and troubled. "When I said,
'misfortune,' I meant, of course, that he is to blame; but--shall I
leave you his letter to me?"

"I think I have enough to meditate upon," he replied, coldly bowing.

"God bless you," she whispered. "And--may I say it? do not shut your
heart."

He assured her that he hoped not to do so and the moment she was gone he
set about shutting it as tight as he could.

If, instead of saying, Base no system on a human being, he had said,
Never experimentalize with one, he would have been nearer the truth of
his own case. He had experimented on humanity in the person of the son
he loved as his life,