"Some little while ago," resumed Drelincourt, "a friend of mine, whom I may be said to have known all my life, was charged on his own confession--a confession he need never have made had he not voluntarily chosen to do so--with the commission of what by the majority of persons would doubtless be regarded as a crime of a very heinous kind; although it is to be presumed that, had he thought well to do so, he could have alleged some justification at least of the crime of which he was guilty. But be that as it may, having made a clean breast of it, there seemed no course left open to him but suicide." "Suicide! Oh, Mr. Drelincourt!" "That touches him!" whispered the latter to himself. Then aloud: "Life had become too bitter to him; he could endure it no longer. Well, he had one child, a daughter, who was engaged to be married at the time of her father's death; but after that event, the man to whom she was betrothed broke off the affair on the plea that it was impossible for him to wed the daughter of a criminal and a suicide." "The mean scoundrel!" "The double blow--the loss at once of her father and her lover (not to speak of the social stigma which will inevitably cling to her in time to come) has all but broken poor Lucy's heart. On the other hand, there is, of course, much to be urged from young Melville's point of view, and I have no doubt the majority of men would be inclined to do as he has done. Who can estimate the harm it might have done his future career had he married the daughter of a man who, rather than face the consequences of his crime, had preferred to put an end to himself! Yes, on further reflection, I am inclined to think that he behaved with admirable prudence." "While I, if he were here, would brand him for the coward and despicable wretch he really is!" exclaimed Deane. His cheeks were flushed, a fine indignation shone in his eyes; there could be no doubt of the sincerity with which he spoke. Nothing of all this was lost on the elder man. "But the young lady is well rid of him," he went on. "If in the darkest hours of her life he thus abandons her, what he miscalled his love is not a thing either to covet or regret." "But consider," urged Drelincourt, "what the world would have said! Think of the shock to his friends!" "In his place I should have thought only of her I loved. If the world and my friends chose to disapprove, they would have been welcome to do so. Oh, Mr. Drelincourt, what a miserable hound this fellow must be! Not to one man in a thousand in these days is the chance afforded of proving what stuff he's really made of. In King Arthur's time men had to win their wives after a fashion which revealed the coward and the cad in their true colors. What a pity that some such test is not enforced nowadays!" Drelincourt smiled as he rose and pushed away his chair. "In that case, I'm afraid the number of compulsory bachelors would soon mount up to an alarming figure."