'Then why do you beg her last shilling from your mother, and when you have money not pay it back to her?'
'She can have the twenty pounds, if you mean that.'
'I mean that, and a good deal more than that. I suppose you have been gambling.'
'I don't know that I am bound to answer your questions, and I won't do it. If you have nothing else to say, I'll go about my own business.'
'I have something else to say, and I mean to say it.' Felix had walked towards the door, but Roger was before him, and now leaned his back against it.
'I'm not going to be kept here against my will,' said Felix.
'You have to listen to me, so you may as well sit still. Do you wish to be looked upon as a blackguard by all the world?'
'Oh;--go on!'
'That is what it will be. You have spent every shilling of your own,-- and because your mother is affectionate and weak you are now spending all that she has, and are bringing her and your sister to beggary.'
'I don't ask her to pay anything for me.'
'Not when you borrow her money?'
'There is the £20. Take it and give it her.' said Felix, counting the notes out of the pocket-book. 'When I asked, her for it, I did not think she would make such a row about such a trifle.' Roger took up the notes and thrust them into his pocket. 'Now, have you done?' said Felix.
'Not quite. Do you purpose that your mother should keep you and clothe you for the rest of your life?'
'I hope to be able to keep her before long, and to do it much better than it has ever been done before. The truth is, Roger, you know nothing about it. If you'll leave me to myself you'll find that I shall do very well.'
'I don't know any young man who ever did worse or one who had less moral conception of what is right and wrong.'
'Very well. That's your idea. I differ from you. People can't all think alike, you know. Now, if you please, I'll go.'
Roger felt that he hadn't half said what he had to say, but he hardly knew how to get it said. And of what use could it be to talk to a young man who was altogether callous and without feeling? The remedy for the evil ought to be found in the mother's conduct rather than the son's. She, were she not foolishly weak, would make up her mind to divide herself utterly from her son, at any rate for a while, and to leave him to suffer utter penury. That would bring him round. And then when the agony of want had tamed him, he would be content to take bread and meat from her hand and would be humble. At present he had money in his pocket, and would eat and drink of the best, and be free from inconvenience for the moment. While this prosperity remained it would be impossible to touch him. 'You will ruin your sister, and break your mother's heart.' said Roger, firing a last harmless shot after the young reprobate.