They cannot do less than offer me a peerage.

This railway will be of too much service to the government for them to pass me over.

The peerage must come; there is no chance of my losing it.
Why, yes! The future is as bright as the sunlight on a June morning! You will have the girl you love, I shall have the peerage to leave to you.

I shall have not lived and struggled and fought in vain.

I shall have left a name unstained, unsullied, to the son I love!" There was a catch in his voice, and it broke as he turned suddenly with outstretched hand.
"Why, God forgive me, Stafford, my boy! I'm talking of what I've done for you and what I'm meaning to do as if I were forgetting what you are doing for me! Stafford, a father often finds that he has worked for his children only to meet with ingratitude and to be repaid by indifference; but you have returned my affection--Oh, I've seen it, felt it, my boy! And now, as fate would have it, you are actually saving my honour, shielding my good name, coming between me and utter ruin! God bless you, Stafford! God bless you and send you all the happiness you deserve and I wish you!" A silence fell.