He saw, too, the evil
of his conduct in having thrust a temptation in the way of honest John
too great to be resisted. The police could hear no news of him, and,
indeed, seemed very incredulous with respect to Richard's account of the
matter.
On the fourth day Richard received a letter from his father of the
gravest kind, though expressed in the most affectionate terms. He hardly
alluded to the immediate misfortune that had happened to him, but spoke
of the anxiety and alarm which his conduct had caused his mother
and himself. "I enclose you a check," he wrote, "just sufficient to
comfortably bring you home and pay your hotel bill, and exceedingly
regret that I cannot trust my son with more--lest he should risk it in
a way that gives his mother and myself more distress of mind than I can
express."
Richard's heart was touched, as it well might have been; though perhaps
the condition of mind in which his father's communication found him had
something to do with it. By that night's mail he despatched a letter
home which gave the greatest delight at the Court, and also at the
vicarage, for Mr. Luscombe, full of pride and joy, brought it to my
father to read. "I have been very foolish, sir, and very wicked," it
ran.
Pages:
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31