"O George, my boy, has it come to this ?" I don't want to be instructed in my duty.

I know what my duty was on that occasion as well as any man.

My duty as a citizen and a magistrate was to stand at the further end of the cell, and give this hardened criminal a moral lecture, showing how honesty and virtue, as in my case, had led to wealth and honour, and how yielding to one's passions led to disgrace and infamy, as in his.

That was my duty, I allow.

But then, you see, I didn't do my duty.