Don Felix came back from the hatch and stopped for dinner. When he and
Father Sebastian had gone, Marston asked Wyndham: "What about the other
lot of goods that was already in the hold?"
"Well?" said Wyndham. "Do you see any object for our returning the
stuff? For that matter, I don't know to whom it ought to be returned."
Marston said the goods could wait at the village until the owner claimed
payment. "We promised Don Felix we would not take this cargo," he added.
"You mean, I promised?" Wyndham rejoined. "My promise applied to the
particular lot he grumbled about. Anyhow, I want the goods. We can sell
them for a high price."
Marston admitted that the argument was plausible, although he doubted if
it were ethically sound. Still he must not be fastidiously critical
about his friend. He was rich and free from one kind of temptation;
Harry was poor. Wyndham noted his hesitation and resumed:
"Our voyage is not a yachting excursion. We are frankly out for what we
can earn, and I'm, so to speak, now on trial. I'm young and the head of
a house that people knew was tottering when I took control. Chisholm and
Flora's relations have reserved their judgment; they're willing to give
me a fair chance, but wait to see what I can do. Well, you know my
drawbacks and how much depends on my making good. In order to do so,
I'll run all risks."
Marston thought there was a risk Wyndham did not see. Flora Chisholm was
honest and proud. Her lover's success would not satisfy her if she
disapproved the means he used. This, however, was an awkward subject and
Marston owned that to imagine Harry would give her grounds for
disapproving was taking much for granted. He let the matter go and began
to talk about something else.
For all that, when Wyndham left him he lighted a fresh cigarette and
mused. Harry was his friend, but he began to see he had got a habit of
making allowances for him that he might not have made for others. Harry
had a strange charm and individuality; somehow one could not judge him
by conventional rules. Then Marston remembered that Mabel had let him
go in order that he might be Harry's protector, but the dangers he was
to be guarded from were not physical. Marston understood this better now
and doubted if he were clever enough for the job; Mabel did not mean him
to be a hypercritical prig. Anyhow, he had undertaken the job and Mabel,
perhaps rather foolishly, trusted him. He threw his cigarette away and
went off to superintend the stowage of the cargo.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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