Читать книгу Under the Tiger's Claws; Or, A Struggle for the Right онлайн

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“Naturally not,” said Flood simply.

“You have been a frequent visitor here, and have won the esteem of all my house, and God only knows how pained I am to learn the truth that must forever sever our friendship.”

There were tears in the rector’s aged eyes, but Flood never moved nor changed.

“May not a gamester be a true friend?” he asked gravely.

“Not a worthy one—never!”

“You feel sure of that?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then you consider me a knave?”

“Your vocation brands you as one.”

“I will not undertake, Doctor Royal, to defend my vocation,” said Flood, with indescribable gentleness. “It would be vain for me to try to show one of your cloth that but very little moral difference exists between my methods and those of numberless institutions countenanced complacently both by law and society——”

“There can be no extenuation——”

“Hear me, please! I came here at your son’s solicitation, rather against my own will, and I believed my first visit would be my last. Fate decided otherwise. I met your only daughter—— Nay, sir, do not shudder! I have never yet spoken to her one word of love.”