I am not bringing up this point to you
now as a legal question, but as a moral one."
"Ah! You do not find that the morals provided by the law are good enough
for you, then?"
"If your reading of the law is correct--of which I am not so certain as
you are, I fear--it appears that they are not. But--"
"It is my misfortune," interrupted the old man, his hand tightening on
the table-edge, "that your sympathies are not with me in the matter.
Mistaken sentiment, youthful Quixotism, lead you to take an absurdly
distorted view of what--"
"No, I'm afraid not. You see, when stripped of all unnecessary language,
the repulsive fact is just this: we are living here on money that was
unlawfully abstracted from the Weyland estate. No matter what the law
may say, we know that this money morally belongs to its original owners.
Now I ask you--"
"Let me put it another way. I can show you exactly where your
misapprehension is--"
Queed stopped him short by a gesture. "My mind is so clear on this point
that discussion only wastes our time."
The young man's burst of exultation was all but stillborn; already
despair plucked chilly at his heart-strings.
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