ss and rob him of all that he had in the
world? He was conscious all the while that there was a something wrong
in his argument,--that Paul when he commenced to love the girl knew
nothing of his friend's love,--that the girl, though Paul had never come
in the way, might probably have been as obdurate as she was now to his
entreaties. He knew all this because his mind was clear. But yet the
injustice,--at any rate, the misery was so great, that to forgive it and
to reward it would be weak, womanly, and foolish. Roger Carbury did
not quite believe in the forgiveness of injuries. If you pardon all
the evil done to you, you encourage others to do you evil! If you give
your cloak to him who steals your coat, how long will it be, before
your shirt and trousers will go also? Roger Carbury, returned that
afternoon to Suffolk, and as he thought of it all throughout the
journey, he resolved that he would never forgive Paul Montague if Paul
Montague should become his cousin's husband.

CHAPTER IX - THE GREAT RAILWAY TO VERA CRUZ

'You have been a guest in his house. Then, I guess, the thing's about
as good as done.' These words were spoken with a fine, sharp, nasal
twang by a brilliantly-dressed American gentleman in one of the
smartest private rooms of the great railway hotel at Liverpool, and
they were addressed to a young Englishman who was sitting opposite to
him. Between them there was a table covered with maps, schedules, and
printed programmes. The American was smoking a very large cigar, which
he kept constantly turning in his mouth, and half of which was inside
his teeth. The Englishman had a short pipe. Mr Hamilton K. Fisker, of
the firm of Fisker, Montague, and Montague, was the American, and the
Englishman was our friend Paul, the junior member of that firm.

'But I didn't even speak to him,' said Paul.

'In commercial affairs that matters nothing. It quite justifies you in
introducing me. We are not going to ask your friend to do us a favour.
We don't want to borrow money.'

'I thought you did.'

'If he'll go in for the thing he'd be one of us, and there would be no
borrowing then. He'll join us if he's as clever as they say, because
he'll see his way to making a couple of million of dollars out of it.
If he'd take the trouble to run over and show himself in San
Francisco, he'd make double that. The moneyed men would go in with him
at once, because they know that he understands the game and has got
the