He had stood out resolutely against all contention that the children
should be cast upon the world once more. Harsh words were used at
times by interested friends in their efforts to bring him to his
senses. They urged him to let them find homes or asylums for the
rapacious youngsters; they described them as so many Sindbads; they
spoke of them as millstones about the neck of a man who could never
get his head above water unless he cut loose from them; they argued
long and insistently about his mistaken ideas of justice,
responsibility, affection. He came back at them always with the
patient declaration that he would stand by the bargain made by himself
and his wife so long as God saw fit to give him the strength to earn a
living for their charges.
"Why, confound you, Bingle," said Mr. Force to him one day at the
bank, "one would think that you still regard yourself as a
millionaire, the way you hang onto those kids. Cut them adrift, old
fellow. Or if you won't do that, at least let some of us help you in a
pecuniary way.
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