"Oh, you've feathered _your_ nest, Colonel!" cried Mrs. Batholommey, recovering somewhat.
"I never came here," retorted Colonel Lawton spitefully, "that _you_ weren't begging!"
"See here, Lawton," the clergyman interrupted truculently, "don't forget who you are speaking to!"
Colonel Lawton waved his hand patronisingly at the clergyman.
"That's all right, Parson. I know who I'm speaking to. We're all in the same boat--one's as good as another--when we're all up against a thing like this. If anything, you two are worse than I am, for you stand for better things. What would your congregation think of either of you if they could look into your hearts this moment and see 'em as they _really_ are?"
"Really are--really are!" cried Mrs. Batholommey. "I'm not ashamed to have any one see my heart as it really is!"
(And Mrs. Batholommey was telling the truth, for she was a good woman at heart, and it was not her fault that she had a human desire for this world's goods for those she loved, for the church, and for herself.)
Here Frederik, who had watched the scene with much amusement at first, came forward through the increasing gloom. He was getting tired of the childish bickering.
"Well, well, well, I'm disgusted," he said, "when I see such heartlessness! He was putty in all your hands."
"Oh, you can defend his memory. _You_ got the money!" cried Mrs. Batholommey, with asperity. "He liked flattery and you gave him what he wanted and you gave him plenty of it."
"Why not?" retorted Frederik calmly, getting a cigarette out of his case. "The rest of you were at the same thing--yes?"
He struck a match and lighted his cigarette as he continued in a disagreeable tone:
"And I had the pleasure of watching him hand out the money that belonged to me--to _me_," he repeated. "My money! What business had he to be generous with my money?"
Still talking, Frederik sat down at the desk.
"If he'd lived much longer, I'd have been a pauper. It's a lucky thing for me he di----"
Frederik had the grace to leave the word unfinished.
"Young man," he said solemnly, "it might have been better if Mr. Grimm had given _all_ he had to charity--for he left his money to an ingrate."
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" he cried. "You amuse one! You don't know how amusing you are."