“You think so yourself, I see!  Very well.  You know that whatever I have been to others, that girl has nothing against me.”

“Nothing against you?  Why, she owes you honour, life, everything.”

“Never mind that.  Only when I take a fancy to begin, I’ll carry it through.  I took to that girl, for poor Wyse’s sake; and I’ll behave by her to the last as he would wish; and he who insults her, insults me.  I won’t go out of my way to find Stangrave:  but if I do, I’ll have it out!”

“Then you will certainly fight.  My dearest Tom, do look into your own heart, and see whether you have not a grain or two of spite against him left.  I assure you you judge him too harshly.”

“Hum—­that must take its chance.  At least, if we fight, we fight fairly and equally.  He is a brave man—­I will do him that justice—­and a cool one; and used to be a sweet shot.  So he has just as good a chance of shooting me, if I am in the wrong, as I have of shooting him, if he is.”

“But your father?”

“I know.  That is very disagreeable; and all the more so because I am going to insure my life—­a pretty premium they will make me pay!—­and if I’m killed in a duel, it will be forfeited.  However, the only answer to that is, that either I shan’t fight, or if I do, I shan’t be killed.  You know I don’t believe in being killed, Claude.”

“Tom!  Tom!  The same as ever!” said Claude sadly.

“Well, old man, and what else would you have me?  Nobody could ever alter me, you know; and why should I alter myself?  Here I am, after all, alive and jolly; and there is old daddy, as comfortable as he ever can be on earth:  and so it will be to the end of the chapter.  There! let’s talk of something else.”

CHAPTER XVI.

Come at last.

Now, as if in all things Tom Thurnall and John Briggs were fated to take opposite sides, Campbell lost ground with Elsley as fast as he gained it with Thurnall.  Elsley had never forgiven himself for his passion that first morning.  He had shown Campbell his weak side, and feared and disliked him accordingly.  Beside, what might not Thurnall have told Campbell about him?  And what use might not the Major make of his secret?  Besides, Elsley’s dread and suspicion increased rapidly when he discovered that Campbell was one of those men who live on terms of peculiar intimacy with many women; whether for his own good or not, still for the good of the women concerned.  For only by honest purity, and moral courage superior to that of the many, is that dangerous post earned; and women will listen to the man who will tell them the truth, however sternly; and will bow, as before a guardian angel, to the strong insight of him whom they have once learned to trust.  But it is a dangerous office, after all, for layman as well as for priest, that of father-confessor.  The experience of centuries has shown that they must