"
"Possibly," said Mr. Wright with dignity, "you are, to some extent,
correct. But a man cannot permit his only son to run wild and
founder."
"Sam won't founder. But he may get a bad strain. You'd better look
out. He is his father's son."
"I do not know, sir, to what you refer."
"Oh, yes, you do," Dr. Lavendar assured him easily; "and you know that
no man can experience unforgiving anger, and not be crippled. You
didn't founder, Sam, but you gave yourself a mighty ugly wrench. Hey?
Isn't that so?"
The senior warden looked perfectly deaf; then he took up the tale
again.
"If he goes on in his folly he will only be unhappy, and deservedly
so. She will have nothing to do with him. In stopping him, I shall
only be keeping him from future unhappiness."
"Samuel," said Dr. Lavendar, "I never begrudge unhappiness to the
young."
But Mr., Wright was too absorbed in his own troubles to get any
comfort out of that.
"By the way," said Dr. Lavendar, "speaking of Mrs. Richie--do you
think she'd be a good person to take this little David Allison?"
"I don't know why she shouldn't be, sir," Samuel said. "I have no
fault to find with _her_. She pays her rent and goes to church. Yes; a
very good person to take the boy off your hands."
"The rent is important," Dr, Lavendar agreed nodding; "but going to
church doesn't prove anything."
"All good people go to church," the senior warden reproved him.
Pages:
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96