"Indeed he will. It is hard to calculate the extent of the malignity of a wicked man. Whether the barony will share the loss with me I cannot yet say; but in either case the wickedness will be the same. There is no word bad enough for it. It is altogether damnable; and this is done by a man who calls me in question because of my religion." Here the father paused, but Florian stood by without an answer. If Pat Carroll was right in his religion, his father must be wrong; and Florian thought that Pat Carroll was right. But he did not see how the two things were joined together,--the opening of the sluices, and the truth of Pat Carroll's religious convictions. "But bad as the matter is as regards Pat Carroll, it is all as nothing in reference to the accusation made against you." Here the father came up, and laying his two hands on the boy's shoulders looked sadly into his face. "I cannot believe that my own boy, my darling boy, has joined in this evil deed against me!" Here the father ceased and waited for his son to speak. The son remembered the determination to which he had come, and resolved to adhere to it. "I didn't," he said after a pause. "I cannot believe it of you; and yet, your sisters who are as true as steel, who are so good that I bless God morning and night that He in His mercy has left me such treasures,--they believe it." "They are against me because of my religion." "No, Florian, not so; they disapprove of your change in religion, but they are not brought to accuse you by such a feeling. They say that they see it in your face." "How can they see all that in my face?" "That though you are lying persistently, you cannot hide from them that you are lying. They are not only good girls, but they have very sharp wits. A cleverer girl than Edith, or one better able to read the truth of a boy's head, or even a man's, I have never known. I hardly dare to put my own judgment against hers." "In this case she knows nothing about it." "But to me it is of such vital importance! It is not simply that your evidence is needed to punish the man; I would let the man go and all the evil that he has done me. But not for any money that I could name would I entertain such an opinion of my son. Were I convinced at this moment that you are innocent, I should be a happy man." "Then you may, father." "But your manner is against you. You do not answer me with that appearance of frankness which I should have expected." "Of course it all makes me very miserable. How can a fellow be frank when he's suspected like this?" "Florian, do you give me your most solemn assurance that you saw nothing of this evil work while it was being perpetrated?" "Yes, father." "You saw nothing, and you knew nothing?" "No, father." "You have no reason to accuse Pat Carroll, except by what you have heard?" "No, father." "Nor anyone else?"