“It hurt me worse than anything,” Jack resumed, wiping his eyes with his sleeve, “to have you think I would try to get out of a scrape by flinging the blame on to anybody else, and then lying about it. And that’s the hardest part for me to get over. But it’s natural you should think so. I don’t blame you. I can wait for you to find out the truth; you will some time. I’ve no ill-will against Phin, either; but I don’t want to see him or have anything to do with him. So don’t call him. I know just what he would say.”