He walked into the parlour as he spoke; Rachel followed, wondering what was to be the issue. On seeing his enemy, poor Jones reddened slightly but the flush soon died away, and in a meek, subdued voice, he was the first to say "good evening." "Sorry to hear you have been ill," said Saunders sitting down, "but you are coming round, ain't you?" "I am much better," was the quiet reply. "Got anything to do?" bluntly asked Saunders. "Nothing as yet," answered Jones with a subdued groan, for he thought of Rachel, so poor herself, and the burden he was to her. "Well then, Mr. Jones; just listen to me!" said Saunders, drawing his chair near, "I know you have a grudge against me." "You have ruined me," said Jones. "Pshaw, man, 'twas all fair, all in the way of business," exclaimed Saunders a little impatiently. "You have ruined me," said Jones again; "but I forgive you, I have long ago forgiven you, and the shadow of a grudge against you, or living man, I have not, thank God!" "That's all right enough," emphatically said Saunders; "still, Mr. Jones, you say I have ruined you. It isn't the first time either that you have said so, and with some people, I may as well tell you it has injured me." "I am sorry if it has," meekly said Jones. "And I don't care a button," frankly declared Saunders, "but as I was saying, that's your belief, your impression; and to be sure it's true enough in one sense, but then, Mr. Jones, you should not look at your side of the question only. Mr. Smithson meant to set up a grocer's shop long before you opened yours; he spoke to me about it, and if I had only agreed then, it was done; you came, to be sure, but what of that? the street was as free to us as to you; that I lodged in your house was an accident; I did not know when I took your room that I should supplant you some day. I did not know Smithson had still kept that idea in his head, and that finding no situation I should be glad to consent at last. Well, I did consent, and I did compete with you, and knocked you over, as it were, but Mr. Jones, would not another have done it? And was it not all honourable, fair play?" "Well, I suppose it was," sadly replied Jones, "and since it was a settled thing that I was to be a ruined man, I suppose I ought not to care who did it."