Stevens was one of those persons who watch the progress of events,
and he resolved, with a mental reservation--that seems strange
enough in the case of one who had shown so little reluctance to say
and do the thing which he could not maintain or defend--to avail
himself of some means for requiting, to the uttermost farthing,
the landlord, to whose hospitality he might be indebted during his
stay in Charlemont.
Such are the contradictions of character which hourly detect and
describe the mere worldling--the man lacking in all principle, but
that which is subservient to his selfish policy. To accept money
or money's worth from a stranger, seemed mean and humbling to one,
who did not hesitate, in the promotion of a scheme, which, had
treachery for its object, to clothe himself in the garments of
deception, and to make his appearance with a lie festering upon
his lips. That evening, Alfred Stevens became, with his worthier
companion, an inmate of the happy dwelling of William Hinkley, the
elder--a venerable, white-headed father, whose whole life had made
him worthy of a far higher eulogium than that which John Cross had
pronounced upon him.
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