He almost shuddered as he spoke, and leaning close to the boy’s ear, added in a confidential tone: 

“The King of Babylon!  A sinking business!  An evil man!” He looked sternly into the eyes of the boy and whispered:  “Very!  Oh, very!” He sat back in his seat again, while the expression of his whole figure seemed to say, “Thank God, my conscience is clear, whatever happens to you.”

Jack was so taken down by all this that, for a moment, his head swam.  Mr. Pinhorn added: 

“Prospered, but how?  That is the question.  Took the money of a friend and spent it.  Many could tell you.  Wine!  Women!  Infidelity!  House built on the sands!”

Mr. Adams had heard most of the gloomy talk of the slim man.  Suddenly he said to the slanderer: 

“My friend, did I hear you say that you have been visiting your wife?”

“You did, sir.”

“Well, I do not wonder that she lives in another part of the country,” said Mr. Adams.  “I should think that Philadelphia would feel like moving away from you.  I have heard you say that it was a sinking city.  It is nothing of the kind.  It is floating in spite of the fact that there are human sinkers in it like yourself.  I hate the heart of lead.  This is the land of hope and faith and confidence.  If you do not like it here, go back to England. We do not put our money into holes in the wall.  We lend it to our neighbors because they are worthy of being trusted.  We believe in our neighbors.  We put our cash into business and borrow more to increase our profits.  It is true that many men in Philadelphia are in debt, but they are mostly good for what they owe.  It is a thriving place.  I could not help hearing you speak evil of Doctor Franklin.  He is my friend.  I am proud to say it and I should be no friend of his if I allowed your words to go unrebuked.  Yours, sir, is a leaden soul.  It is without hope or trust in the things of this life.  You seem not to know that a new world is born.  It is a world of three tenses.  We who really live in it are chiefly interested in what a man is and is likely to be, not in what he was.  Doctor Franklin would not hesitate to tell you that his youth was not all it should have been.  He does not conceal his errors.  There is no more honest gentleman in the wide world than Doctor Franklin.”

Mr. Adams had spoken with feeling and a look of indignation in his eyes.  He was a frank, fearless character.  All who sat on the top of the coach had heard him and when he had finished they clapped their hands.

Jack was much relieved.  He had been put in mind of what Doctor Franklin had said long ago, one evening in Albany, of his struggle against the faults and follies of his youth.  For a moment Mr. Pinhorn was dumb with astonishment.

“Nevertheless, sir, I hold to my convictions,” he said.

“Of course you do,” Mr. Adams answered.  “No man like you ever recovered from his convictions, for the reason that his convictions are stronger than he is.”