"
"That's all moonshine."
"It is light, my lord."
"Well, I don't mind confessing, if I am to die, I should prefer
heaven to the other place; but I trust I have no chance of either.
Do you now honestly believe there are two such places?"
"I don't know, my lord."
"You don't know! And you come here to comfort a dying man!"
"Your lordship must first tell me what you mean by 'two such places.'
And as to comfort, going by my notions, I cannot tell which you
would be more or less comfortable in; and that, I presume, would
be the main point with your lordship."
"And what, pray, sir, would be the main point with you?"
"To get nearer to God."
"Well--I can't say I want to get nearer to God. It 's little he
's ever done for me."
"It's a good deal he has tried to do for you, my lord."
"Well, who interfered? Who stood in his way, then?"
"Yourself, my lord."
"I wasn't aware of it. When did he ever try to do anything for me,
and I stood in his way?"
"When he gave you one of the loveliest of women, my lord," said Mr
Graham, with solemn, faltering voice, "and you left her to die in
neglect, and the child to be brought up by strangers."
The marquis gave a cry. The unexpected answer had roused the slowly
gnawing death, and made it bite deeper.
"What have you to do," he almost screamed, "with my affairs? It
was for me to introduce what I chose of them. You presume."
"Pardon me, my lord: you led me to what I was bound to say.
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