‘Just when a fellow was beginning to get on!’ cried Walter rebelliously, ’this has to happen to throw him back.  It was a fearful mistake trying to better myself.  I wish I had sunk down into the mud with the rest.  If I do it yet, it will be the best thing for me.’

Then Gladys intervened.  Though she did not quite comprehend the nature of this new trouble which appeared so powerfully to move him, she could not listen to such words without remonstrance.

’It is not right to speak so, Walter, and I will not listen to it.  Whatever others may do, though it may grieve and cut you to the heart, it cannot take away your honour or integrity, always remember that.’

‘Yes, it can,’ he said impetuously.  ’That kind of disgrace hangs on a man all his days.  He has to bear the sins of others.  That is where the injustice comes in.  The innocent must suffer for and with the guilty always.  There is no escape.’

Gladys sighed, and her face became pale and weary-looking.  Never had life appeared so hard, so full of pain and care.  Looking at the face of Walter, which she had always thought so noble and so good,—­the index to a soul striving, though sometimes but feebly, yet striving always after what was highest and best,—­looking at his face then, and seeing it so shadowed by the bitterness of his lot, her own simple faith for the moment seemed to fail.

‘You saw him, then, this morning, and I hope you admired him,’ said Walter, with harsh scorn.  ’Reeking with drink, speaking thick through it at ten o’clock in the morning!  What chance has a fellow with a father like that?  Ten to one, I go over to drink myself one of these days.  Well, I might do worse.  It drowns care, they say, and I know it destroys feelings, which, from my experience, seem only given for our torture.’

Gladys gave a sob, and turned aside to the safe.  That sound recalled Walter to himself, and in a moment his mood changed.  His eyes melted into tenderness as he looked upon the pale, slight girl, whom his words in some sad way had wounded.

’Forgive me.  I don’t know what I am saying; but I had no right to vex you, the only angel I know in this whole city of Glasgow.’

His extravagant speech provoked a smile on her face, and she turned her head from where she knelt before the safe, and lifted her large earnest eyes to his.

’How you talk!  You must learn to control yourself a little more.  It is self-control that makes a man,’ she said quietly.  ’I do not know how to comfort you, Walter, in this trouble, which seems so much heavier than even I think; but in the end it will be for good.  Everything is, you know, to them that love God.’

She was so familiar with Scripture, and depended so entirely on it for comfort and strength, that her words carried conviction with them.  They fell on the riven heart of Walter like balm, and restored a measure of peace to it.  Before he could make any answer, a quick knocking, and the uplifting of the feeble voice from below, indicated that the old man was impatient of the girl’s delay.  She hastily lifted the pocket-book, relocked the safe door, and, with a nod to Walter, ran down-stairs.