"But," he went on, "I
fear you will no longer approve of marrying her to George, if you
think she's an injury to the business!"
"You know, as well as I do, that is the readiest way to get her
out of it. Make her marry George, and she will fall into my
hands. If I don't make her repent her impudence then, you may
call me the fool you think me."
Mary knew well enough what they wanted of her; but of the real
cause at the root of their desire she had no suspicion. Recoiling
altogether from Mr. Turnbull's theories of business, which were
in flat repudiation of the laws of Him who alone understands
either man or his business, she yet had not a doubt of his
honesty as the trades and professions count honesty. Her father
had left the money affairs of the firm to Mr. Turnbull, and she
did the same. It was for no other reason than that her position
had become almost intolerable, that she now began to wonder if
she was bound to this mode of life, and whether it might not be
possible to forsake it.
Greed is the soul's thieving; where there is greed, there can not
be honesty. John Turnbull, it is true, was not only proud of his
reputation for honesty, but prided himself on being an honest
man; yet not the less was he dishonest--and that with a
dishonesty such as few of those called thieves have attained to.
Like most of his kind, he had been neither so vulgar nor so
dishonest from the first.
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