If Larssen had been a man of ordinary passions, he would have kicked
Dean out of the door and told him to go to the devil. But the shipowner
had not reached his present power by giving way to ordinary feelings.
He answered very quietly: "I should have liked to meet that Mr Way. He
must have been a man of personality. What did you tell him?"
"I didn't tell him anything. I think he guessed. He was that kind of
man--he could read right into you."
"What did he tell you?"
"The story of his life. He had been in prison twice when he was a young
man."
"I mean, what did he tell you to do?"
"He told me it was my hour for repentance. That was when we were in the
observation platform together. The next moment we were thrown over the
bridge."
"And then?"
"He died praying God to help me to repent and live straight!"
"Repent of what?"
"Of taking part in a fraud. Of pretending a dead man was still
alive--going to Canada and sending letters in his name so that his
friends would think he was still alive. I don't know how I could have
brought myself to do such a thing! I was tempted, I suppose, and I fell.
But temptation is nothing--it's falling to temptation that matters!
That's what he said in his sermon."
"Anything else to repent of?"
"Nothing very much, sir. Of course I've not been all I should have been,
but I'd never done anything radically wrong until then."
The shipowner rose and laid a hand on the young man's shoulder.
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