I have not been to him all that a father should be." He said this more in the way of talking to himself than of addressing us.

But I saw Jack colour up at the last reference, and hastened to change the subject.
We felt quite sorry for him when he rose to go.

He evidently knew his son's failings only too well, and with a father's love tried to cover them.

And I could see how in all he said he was almost pleading with us to befriend his boy.
To me it was more than painful to hear him talk thus--to speak to me as if I was a paragon of virtue, and to apologise to _me_ for the defects of his own son.

It was more than I could endure; and when he started to go I asked if I might walk with him.
He gladly assented, and then I poured into his ears the whole story of my follies and struggles and troubles in London.
I shall never forget the kind way in which he listened and the still kinder way in which he talked when he had heard all.
I am not going to repeat that talk here; the reader may guess for himself what a simple Christian minister would have to say to one in my case, and how he would say it.