"You had best go; we are not likely to listen to excuses." "Did you rather suggest a remedy," Joseph put in quietly, "we might hear you." Kenneth swung round and faced him, hope brightening his eyes.
"What remedy is there?
How can I undo what I have done?
Show me but the way, and I'll follow it, no matter where it leads!" Such protestations had Joseph looked to hear, and he was hard put to it to dissemble his satisfaction.

For a while he was silent, making pretence to ponder.

At length: "Kenneth," he said, "you may in some measure repair the evil you have done, and if you are ready to undergo some slight discomfort, I shall be willing on my side to forget this night." "Tell me how, sir, and whatever the cost I will perform it!" He gave no thought to the fact that Crispin's grievance against the Ashburns was well-founded; that they had wrecked his life even as they had sought to destroy it; even as eighteen years ago they had destroyed his wife's.

His only thought was Cynthia; his only wish was to possess her.

Besides that, justice and honour itself were of small account.
"It is but a slight matter," answered Joseph.