’And it is no great compliment now; this confounded place will kill me.  I have been haunted by spectres all the night, five thousand times worse than a voyage to Australia.  That will be amusing, ha! ha!  But to have my father in one corner, and—­and Netta in the other,—­and that cursed money rolling about everywhere, just as it did—­well, never mind that! but hanging outright would have been better.  Don’t preach; it is no good; I am far beyond that, and I know you have your sermon ready; but your presence is some relief after such a night.  I tell you what it is, Rowland, if you are a better and a happier man than I, it is because you had honest parents; it is no merit of yours, and no fault of mine.’

’Howel, I claim no merit; but we are all responsible for our own actions, God forgive those who set a bad example:  they will have to answer for it.’

’Pshaw!  Do you think I meant that?  I mean that if my father hadn’t heaped up all that gold—­bah! the word makes me sick,—­and denied me a sixpence whilst he lived; and if I hadn’t seen my mother rob him whenever she could, and learnt from her to do the same, I shouldn’t be here now!  No, I should be a plodding shopkeeper, or at least a country lawyer, or doctor, and should have been living in a house with three steps to it, and a portico, by this time, with—­don’t suppose I regret such a house—­but Netta! oh, God!  Netta!’

Howel beat his forehead with his hand, and pointed to the corner of his cell.

’There she is! there she has been all the night.  Pale as when I laid her on her bed that miserable day!’

‘Howel! you loved Netta, I see, and believe it now,’ said Rowland.

’You do!  And why not before?  Ah!  I see.  Because I have never done anything to prove it.  But I did not know how I loved her until I knew how she loved me.’

‘Would you prove it now, if you could?’

‘Would I?  Why do you mock me by such a question?’

’Because she, being dead, yet speaks.  Her last wishes, thoughts, words, writing, were for you.’

’Do I not know it?  Have I not read?  All night have her words not haunted me?’

’And her prayers, Howel?  Shall they be forgotten?  And that Book in which she wrote last, will you not read it?’

’I don’t know.  I tried last night, and I could not.  I have never read the book since I wrote Greek at school.’

‘Netta begged you to read it.’

’What is that to you, Rowland Prothero?  Who put you over me as judge and counsellor?’

’Netta.  As spiritual counsellor, at least; and in her name, since you will not let me appeal to you in a Higher name, I command you to listen to me.’

Rowland saw that he had gained an advantage by appealing to Netta, and that Howel checked the irony that was on his tongue, out of reverence for her name.  At once he spoke as an ambassador in that Higher name he had feared to use before.