‘Ah, that explains--! Well, Sandford, most likely we were wrong altogether. I find a great deal that is admirable in your scheme. We see business in it,’ said Mr. William, rubbing his hands. ‘We see money in it. We see our way to making a great thing of it; that’s the fact, Sandford. We never meant you to take our remonstrance as bitterly as you did, you know: never. Things looked bad. It looked like an ugly piece of business--it looked like----’ ‘Put it in plain words,’ said John, roused to all his old indignation, and using involuntarily the words his navvies might have used. ‘You thought it as mean a dirty trick as ever was played?’ Mr. William Barrett paused a little and then he burst into a laugh which carried off a good deal of annoyance and something like shame. ‘We needn’t quarrel about words,’ he said, ‘but I never believed it in my heart. I looked for some explanation from you that would clear it up at once, for I knew you were not the man to do a dirty trick. But I could get nothing out of you, not even when I went to your rooms that time, and found you involved deeper and deeper.’ ‘When did you come to my rooms?’ said John, looking at him blankly. ‘Sandford,’ said the younger Barrett, ‘look here, my good fellow, you’re young and you must be careful. Whatever you have been doing, it must have been worse than an ordinary spree.’ John stared at him for a moment without comprehending: and then he answered; with a kind of smile, ‘Yes, it was much worse than an ordinary--spree.’ ‘If it were not that I never knew you to do anything of the kind before---- Yes, I was there; you had two men with you, and I didn’t like the looks of them. Now, look here: I didn’t understand then, and I don’t inquire now, what was the matter; you’ve always been a steady fellow so far as we have known; you’ll have to be so more than ever, mind you, if you go into this big thing. The thing’s so big that it will make your fortune--with the help our experience can give you--and if it’s accepted, as I have little doubt it will be. But you’ll have to be careful. Bad company and bad hours, and that sort of thing, will never do for a rising man.’ John made no reply. Bad company! yes, it had been bad company. It was hard to sit quietly under an imputation which went so entirely against all the traditions of his life, but it was better perhaps that they should think so than that they or anyone should know the truth. The elder Mr. Barrett shook his solemn head like a wise old sheep, with his white hair and beard. ‘Depend upon it,’ he said, ‘without good principles, no man ever did anything. Clever notions are all very well, but without good principles----’