through

you, has
—'What!' said Figgins—
destroyed himself!
—'Great God!' said Charles;
and after a pause, in which both lifted up their eyes and hands to heaven, he went on,
you will not wonder, for the sake of my character, that I have done with you. Yet, in consideration of my pains and care in your youth—which indeed I little thought would be so required—I will take this last opportunity to wring your heart, for lenitives I find have spoilt you, that you may, if yet there remain in it a single spark of sensibility, awake to a sense of your wickedness, though, complicated and atrocious as it is, no hopes can be entertained of your repentance.

'Damnation!' said Figgins, 'I have not common patience; the people are all mad. A man would swear we had began, the moment we left London, by robbing upon the high way, and that as soon as we arrived in France, we enrolled ourselves members of a banditti.'

Charles looked vacantly wretched, and Figgins continued.
But what will the task avail of setting the black catalogue—
'Horrid black indeed,' said Figgins—
of your crimes before you, I shall only feast your eyes on what has given you so much pleasure; and thus the contemplation

of those seducing facts may stimulate you to a commission of others, if possible, still more daring, to shew that you know how to attain perfection in villany. Nevertheless, as your father's bounty has so largely reached me, in return for the unwearied pains I took to render you an accomplished and worthy member of society, I will make this one effort towards your conversion.

'Charitable creature!' said Figgins. 'Where has Mr. Standfast picked up so much scrupulosity? I thought his maxims were to allow a broad liberty of conscience. Zounds, one would think he had fallen in love with Mrs. O'Shocknesy. But let us come to the catalogue.'

First then, would not one think that you determined to set honesty, honour, and even decency at defiance, to debase yourself, whose character was really high in the world's estimation, and raise your brother, who had so foolishly borne himself as to be indifferently thought of, by that wanton unnecessary theft at Calais, which your brother, shocked at such conduct, so handsomely repaired?

'Well, this is master stroke the first,' said Figgins.

'Why at this rate Charles your fortune, to be understood, must, like a witches spell