 it presents to my own
view.«
    As she sat looking straight before her, across the changing lights upon the
grass into the darkness of the wood beyond, he saw in her face her application
of his very distinctly uttered words.
    »All allowance,« he continued, »must be made. I have one great fault to find
with Tom, however, which I cannot forgive, and for which I take him heavily to
account.«
    Louisa turned her eyes to his face, and asked him what fault was that?
    »Perhaps,« he returned, »I have said enough. Perhaps it would have been
better, on the whole, if no allusion to it had escaped me.«
    »You alarm me, Mr. Harthouse. Pray let me know it.«
    »To relieve you from needless apprehension - and as this confidence
regarding your brother, which I prize I am sure above all possible things, has
been established between us - I obey. I cannot forgive him for not being more
sensible in every word, look, and act of his life, of the affection of his best
friend; of the devotion of his best friend; of her unselfishness; of her
sacrifice. The return he makes her, within my observation, is a very poor one.
What she has done for him demands his constant love and gratitude, not his
ill-humour and caprice. Careless fellow as I am, I am not so indifferent, Mrs.
Bounderby, as to be regardless of this vice in your brother, or inclined to
consider it a venial offence.«
    The wood floated before her, for her eyes were suffused with tears. They
rose from a deep well, long concealed, and her heart was filled with acute pain
that found no relief in them.
    »In a word, it is to correct your brother in this, Mrs. Bounderby, that I
must aspire. My better knowledge of his circumstances, and my direction and
advice in extricating them - rather valuable, I hope, as coming from a
scapegrace on a much larger scale - will give me some influence over him, and
all I gain I shall certainly use towards this end. I have said enough, and more
than enough. I seem to be protesting that I am a sort of good fellow, when, upon
my honour, I have not the least intention to make any protestation to that
effect, and openly announce that I am nothing of the sort. Yonder, among the
trees,« he added, having lifted up his eyes and looked about; for he had watched
