That it was wholly justifiable he personally would have contended
before archangels. This miserly uncle was keeping from him money that
was as incontestably his own as the being which also his mother had
given him. Before all the angelic host he would thus have protested-
without stammer, without blush; with the inspiration of righteousness,
with the integrity of innocence. But to protest his cause before his
Mary was another matter. There might be no occasion to protest; his
Mary might see eye to eye with him in the matter. She might; but it
was an eventuality he did not care to try against a test. His Mary was
a girl--and girls are in their conduct narrowed by scruples that do
not beset men. His Mary--and this it was that would make a test so
violent--his Mary was his Mary, and well he knew, and loved, the
little heart so delicately white as instantly to discover the finest
specks of sootiness--if specks there were--in any breeze that might
cross its surface.
No, he would not tell his Mary. When the thing was done--when he, the
black-hearted rogue, had the little saint safe in the toils she would
find so delicious, then--then he would tell her, would silence her
frightened squeals--if she squealed--by his intention to pay back the
money, whether won as reward (which was improbable) or earned as token
of gratitude (which was highly likely).
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