On the evening after his encounter with Liftore, Malcolm visited
the schoolmaster, and told him everything about the affair. He
concluded by saying that Lizzie's wrongs had loaded the whip far
more than his sister's insult; but that he was very doubtful whether
he had had any right to constitute himself the avenger of either
after such a fashion. Mr Graham replied that a man ought never
to be carried away by wrath, as he had so often sought to impress
upon him, and not without success: but that, in the present case,
as the rascal deserved it so well, he did not think he need trouble
himself much. At the same time he ought to remind himself that
the rightness or wrongness of any particular act was of far less
consequence than the rightness or wrongness of the will whence
sprang the act; and that, while no man could be too anxious as to
whether a contemplated action ought or ought not to be done, at
the same time no man could do anything absolutely right until he
was one with him whose was the only absolute self generated purity
--that is, until God dwelt in him and he in God.
Before he left, the schoolmaster had acquainted him with all that
portion of his London history which he had hitherto kept from him,
and told him where he was preaching.
When Caley returned to her mistress after giving Malcolm the message
that she did not require his services, and reported the condition
of his face, Florimel informed her of the chastisement he had
received from Liftore, and desired her to find out for her how he
was, for she was anxious about him.
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