He had been in two minds about it before, wondering whether it would not be better to let Martin have a sharp lesson, but to-night he was thankful that he had not done so.

The mercy he had shown had come back to bless him also; he felt a glow of thankfulness that the subject of his clemency had turned out so well.

Punishment often hardens the criminal, was one of his settled convictions.

But Morris--again his thoughts went back to Morris, who was already standing on the verge of manhood, on the verge, too, he made no doubt of married life and its joys and responsibilities.

Mr.Taynton was himself a bachelor, and the thought gave him not a moment of jealousy, but a moment of void that ached a little at the thought of the common human bliss which he had himself missed.