The letter to Miss Weyland could
come from a lawyer in the West; in Australia, if the old man liked; that
didn't matter. The one thing that did matter was that he should
immediately make restitution as fully as lay within the power of them
both.
Surface, of course, would desperately resist such a suggestion. Queed
knew of but one club which could drive him to agree to it, one goad
which could rowel him to the height. This was his own continued
companionship. He could compel Surface to disgorgement only at the price
of a new offering of himself to the odious old man who had played false
with him as with everybody else. Queed did not hesitate. At the moment
every cost seemed small to clear his dearest belonging, which was his
personal honesty, of this stain. As for Surface, nothing could make him
more detestable in a moral sense than he had been all along. He had been
a thief and a liar from the beginning. Once the cleansing storm was
over, their unhappy domestic union could go on much as it had done
before.
For his part, he must at once set about restoring his half of the joint
living expenses consumed during the past nine months.
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