shame!"

"It is many years since we met, father; we may never meet again--shall we
part thus?"

"Thus, aha!" said the old man in a tone of withering sarcasm! "I
comprehend,--you are come for money!"

At this taunt the son started as if stung by a serpent; raised his head
to its full height, folded his arms, and replied:

"Sir, you wrong me: for more than twenty years I have maintained myself--
no matter how, but without taxing you;--and now, I felt remorse for
having suffered you to discard me,--now, when you are old and helpless,
and, I heard, blind: and you might want aid, even from your poor good-
for-nothing son. But I have done. Forget,--not my sins, but this
interview. Repeal your curse, father; I have enough on my head without
yours; and so--let the son at least bless the father who curses him.
Farewell!"

The speaker turned as he thus said, with a voice that trembled at the
close, and brushed rapidly by Philip, whom he did not, however, appear to
perceive; but Philip, by the last red beam of the sun, saw again that
marked storm-beaten face which it was difficult, once seen, to forget,
and recognised the stranger on whose breast be had slept the night of his
fatal visit to R----.

The old man's imperfect vision did not detect the departure of his son,
but his face changed and softened as the latter strode silently through
the rank grass.