"All who have land, ought to live on it, or else give it to those who
will. What makes it theirs, if their only connection with it is the money
it brings them? If I let my horse run wild over the country, how could I
claim him, and refuse to pay his damages?"

"I don't quite understand you."

"I only mean there is no bond where both ends are not tied. My mother has
no sense of obligation, so far as ever I have been able to see. But do
not be afraid: I would as soon take a wife to the house she was in, as I
would ask her to creep with me into the den of a hyena."

It was too dreadful! I rose. He sprang to his feet.

"You must excuse me, sir!" I said. "With one who can speak so of his
mother, I am where I ought not to be."

"You have a right to know what my mother is," he answered--coldly, I
thought; "and I should not be a true man if I spoke of her otherwise than
truly."

He would pretend nothing to please me! I saw that I was again in the
wrong. Was I so ill read as to imagine that a mother must of necessity be
a good woman? Was he to speak of his mother as he did not believe of her,
or be unfit for my company? Would untruth be a bond between us?

"I beg your pardon," I said; "I was wrong. But you can hardly wonder I
should be shocked to hear a son speak so of his mother--and to one all
but a stranger!"