And his father was one of the wicked! And God was against him! And when he died he would go to hell! But he was not dead yet: Robert was sure of that.

And when he grew a man, he would go and seek him, and beg him on his knees to repent and come back to God, who would forgive him then, and take him to heaven when he died.
And there he would be good, and good people would love him.
Something like this passed through the boy's mind ere he moved to creep from the room, for his was one of those natures which are active in the generation of hope.

He had almost forgotten what he came there for; and had it not been that he had promised Shargar, he would have crept back to his bed and left him to bear his hunger as best he could.

But now, first his right hand, then his left knee, like any other quadruped, he crawled to the door, rose only to his knees to open it, took almost a minute to the operation, then dropped and crawled again, till he had passed out, turned, and drawn the door to, leaving it slightly ajar.
Then it struck him awfully that the same terrible passage must be gone through again.

But he rose to his feet, for he had no shoes on, and there was little danger of making any noise, although it was pitch dark--he knew the house so well.