近期热门的优选书刊《飘》，轻松有趣温柔的治愈你(104)

“I suppose you think it"s honest to keep the Confederate money. Well, it isn"t.It"s plain out and out stealing and you know it.I wouldn"t have that on my conscience.”
“My！How sour the grapes are today！”he exclaimed, screwing up his face.“And just whom am I stealing from？”
She was silent, trying to think just whom indeed. After all, he had only done what Frank had done on a small scale.
“Half the money is honestly mine，”he continued，“honestly made with the aid of honest Union patriots who were willing to sell out the Union behind its back—for one-hundred-per-cent profit on their goods. Part I made out of my little investment in cotton at the beginning of the war, the cotton I bought cheap and sold for a dollar a pound when the British mills were crying for it.Part I got from food speculation.Why should I let the Yankees have the fruits of my labor？
But the rest did belong to the Confederacy.It came from Confederate cotton which I managed to run through the blockade and sell in Liverpool at sky-high prices.The cotton was given me in good faith to buy leather and rifles and machinery with.And it was taken by me in good faith to buy the same.My orders were to leave the gold in English banks, under my own name, in order that my credit would be good.You remember when the blockade tightened, Icouldn"t get a boat out of any Confederate port or into one, so there the money stayed in England.What should I have done？