"I--I have taught."
"Ah! and has it been a success?"
"In teaching I have learnt."
Vellacott merely nodded his head.
"Do you know why I sent for you?" continued the missionary.
"No."
"I sent for you in order to tell you that I burnt that letter at Audierne."
"I came to that conclusion, for it never arrived."
"I want you to forgive me."
Vellacott laughed.
"I never thought of it again," he replied heartily.
The priest was looking keenly at him.
"I did not say "thou," but "_you_,"" he persisted gently.
Vellacott"s glance wavered; he raised his head, and looked out of the open port-hole across the gla.s.sy waters of the river.
"What do you mean?" he inquired.
"I thought," said Rene Drucquer, "there might be some one else--some woman--who was waiting for news."
After a little pause the journalist replied.
"My dear Abbe," he said, "there is no woman in the whole world who wants news of me. And the result is, as you kindly say, I am a great man now--in my way."
But he knew that he might have been a greater.