Page 461 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

still lay on the floor as he had left it the night before. ‘No!’
‘No! Why not?’
‘I would learn no such words as those. I would rather for-
get them.’
‘Forget them! My good man, I—‘
Rufus Dawes sprang up in sudden wrath, and pointing to
his cell door with a gesture that—chained and degraded as
he was—had something of dignity in it, cried, ‘What do you
know about the feelings of such as I? Take your book and
yourself away. When I asked for a priest, I had no thought
of you. Begone!’
Meekin, despite the halo of sanctity which he felt should
surround him, found his gentility melt all of a sudden. Ad-
ventitious distinctions had disappeared for the instant.
The pair had become simply man and man, and the sleek
priest-master quailing before the outraged manhood of the
convict-penitent, picked up his Bible and backed out.
‘That man Dawes is very insolent,’ said the insulted chap-
lain to Burgess. ‘He was brutal to me to-day—quite brutal.’
‘Was he?’ said Burgess. ‘Had too long a spell, I expect. I’ll
send him back to work to-morrow.’
‘It would be well,’ said Meekin, ‘if he had some employ-
ment.’

0 For the Term of His Natural Life