"Oh! Mr Fletcher, were you never young like me ?" My father made no reply; John gathered courage.
"It was, as I say, all my fault.

It might have been wrong--I think now that it was--but the temptation was hard.

My life here is dull; I long sometimes for a little amusement--a little change." "Thee shall have it." That voice, slow and quiet as it was, struck us both dumb.
"And how long hast thee planned this, John Halifax ?" "Not a day--not an hour! it was a sudden freak of mine." (My father shook his head with contemptuous incredulity.) "Sir!--Abel Fletcher--did I ever tell you a lie?
If you will not believe me, believe your own son.

Ask Phineas--No, no, ask him nothing!" And he came in great distress to the sofa where I had fallen.

"Oh, Phineas! how cruel I have been to you!" I tried to smile at him, being past speaking--but my father put John aside.
"Young man, _I_ can take care of my son.