Feeling that certainty, I befriend him. As long as that certainty
shall last, I will befriend him. And if any consideration could
shake me in this resolve, I should be so ashamed of myself for my
meanness, that no man's good opinion - no, nor no woman's - so
gained, could compensate me for the loss of my own.'
Good fellow! manly fellow! And he was so modest, too. There was
no more self-assertion in the Minor Canon than in the schoolboy who
had stood in the breezy playing-fields keeping a wicket. He was
simply and staunchly true to his duty alike in the large case and
in the small. So all true souls ever are. So every true soul ever
was, ever is, and ever will be. There is nothing little to the
really great in spirit.
'Then who do you make out did the deed?' asked Mr. Honeythunder,
turning on him abruptly.
'Heaven forbid,' said Mr. Crisparkle, 'that in my desire to clear
one man I should lightly criminate another! I accuse no one,'
'Tcha!' ejaculated Mr. Honeythunder with great disgust; for this
was by no means the principle on which the Philanthropic
Brotherhood usually proceeded. 'And, sir, you are not a
disinterested witness, we must bear in mind.'
'How am I an interested one?' inquired Mr. Crisparkle, smiling
innocently, at a loss to imagine.
'There was a certain stipend, sir, paid to you for your pupil,
which may have warped your judgment a bit,' said Mr. Honeythunder,
coarsely.
'Perhaps I expect to retain it still?' Mr.
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