"I know you deem him all bad. You never allowed him any good quality."

"You know him better than I--a thousand times better, more's the pity.
Very well! I rest the case with you. Tell me, out of all your knowledge of
the man, what 'good quality' he ever showed, how he showed it, and when!"

"Have you forgotten that he saved my life?"

"No; but he forgot it--or rather made it the subject of taunts, in place
of soft thoughts."

"And he loved me--ah! he truly did--for a little!"

"Yes, he loved you! So he did his horses, his kennel, his wine cellar;
and a hundred-fold more he loved himself and his cursed pride."

"How you hate him!"

"Hate him? Yes! Have I not been given cause?"

"He often said that he was not in fault for throwing Tulp over the
gulf-side. He knew no reason, he avowed, why you should have sought a
quarrel with him that day, and forced it upon him, there in the gulf; and
as for Tulp--why, the foolish boy ran at him. Is it not so?"

"Who speaks of Tulp?" I asked, impatiently. "If he had tossed all Ethiopia
over the cliff, and left me _you_--I--I----"

The words were out!