"Perhaps it was not
altogether your fault," he said more gently. "You have been led
astray--"
"No, no!" cried the boy. "I am bad. I see it--it must be! I could
never have been persuaded, if I had not been bad! It began at the very
beginning. I yielded to the first temptation when I stole a ride upon
the train. And everything else came from that--it has been one long
chain!"
"Let us be glad that it is no longer," said Dr. Vince--"and that you
have come to the end of it."
"Ah, but have I?" cried the boy wildly.
"Why not? Surely you will no longer be led by such false teaching!"
"No, sir. But see what I have done! Why I am liable to be sent to
jail--for I don't know how long."
"You mean for last night?" asked the doctor. "But no one will ever
know about that. You may start again and live a true life."
"Ah," cried Samuel, "but the memory of it will haunt me--I can never
forgive myself!"
"We are very fortunate," said the other gravely, "if we have only a
few things in our lives that we cannot forget, and that we cannot
forgive ourselves."
The worthy doctor had been anticipating a long struggle to bring the
young criminal to see the error of his ways; but instead, he found
that he had to use his skill in casuistry to convince the boy that he
was not hopelessly sullied. And when at last Samuel had been persuaded
that he might take up his life again, there was nothing that would
satisfy him save to go back where he had been before, and take up that
struggle with starvation.
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