“Any compensation⁠—restitution⁠—never mind the word, you know my meaning. Father’s grave.”

But he did not respond with any tenderness. After a moody silence he broke out in an ill-used tone:

“It’ll be a very hard thing, Liz, if, when I am trying my best to get up in the world, you pull me back.”

“I, Charley?”

“Yes, you, Liz. Why can’t you let bygones be bygones? Why can’t you, as Mr. Headstone said to me this very evening about another matter, leave well alone? What we have got to do, is, to turn our faces full in our new direction, and keep straight on.”

“And never look back? Not even to try to make some amends?”