in a
state to hold sway again. He had resumed his position; and regained the
favor of West Lynne, which, always in extremes, was now wanting to kill
him with kindness. A happy, happy home from henceforth; and Mrs. Hare
lifted up her full heart in thankfulness to God. Perhaps Richard's went
up also.

One word touching that wretched prisoner in the condemned cell at
Lynneborough. As you must have anticipated, the extreme sentence was not
carried out. And, little favorite as Sir Francis is with you and with
me, we can but admit that justice did not demand that it should be.
That he had willfully killed Hallijohn, was certain; but the act was
committed in a moment of wild rage; it had not been premeditated. The
sentence was commuted to transportation. A far more disgraceful one in
the estimation of Sir Francis; a far more unwelcome one in the eyes of
his wife. It is no use to mince the truth, one little grain of comfort
had penetrated to Lady Levison; the anticipation of the time when she
and her ill-fated child should be alone, and could hide themselves in
some hidden nook of the wide world; _he_, and his crime, and his end
gone; forgotten. But it seems he was not to go and be forgotten; she
and the boy must be tied to him still; and she was lost in horror and
rebellion.

He envied the dead Hallijohn, did that man, as he looked forth on the
future. A cheering prospect truly! The gay Sir Francis Levison working
in chains with his gang! Where would his diamonds and his perfumed
handkerchiefs and his white hands be then? After a time he might get a
ticket-of-leave. He groaned in agony as the turnkey suggested it to him.
A ticket-of-leave for _him_! Oh, why did they not hang him? he wailed
forth as he closed his eyes to the dim light. The light of the cell,
you understand; he could not close them to the light of the future. No;
never again; it shone out all too plainly, dazzling his brain as with a
flame of living fire.

CHAPTER XLVI.

UNTIL ETERNITY.

Barbara was at the seaside, and Lady Isabel was in her bed, dying. You
remember the old French saying, _L'homme propose, et Dieu dispose_. An
exemplification of it was here.

She, Lady Isabel, had consented to remain at East Lynne during Mrs.
Carlyle's absence, on purpose that she might be with her children. But
the object was frustrated, for Lucy and Archibald had been removed
to Miss Carlyle's. It was Mr. Carlyle's arrangement. He thought the
governess ought to h