him. He had just finished his letter. She read and approved it,
and sat down to take a copy of it while her husband occupied her seat
beside Mrs Grey.

The wife let fall a few tears--tears of gentle sorrow and proud love,
not on her husband's letter (for not for the world would she have had
that letter bear a trace of tears), but on the paper on which she wrote.
The letter appeared to her very touching; but others might not think
so: there was so much in it which she alone could see! It took her only
a few minutes to copy it; but the copying gave her strength for all the
day. The letter was as follows:--

"My Dear Sir--Your letter expresses, both in its matter and phrase,
the personal regard which I have always believed you to entertain
towards me and mine. I cannot agree with you, however, in thinking
that the proceeding you propose involves real good to any of the
parties concerned in it. The peace of society in Deerbrook is not
likely to be permanently secured by such deference to ignorant
prejudice as would be expressed by the act of my departure; nor would
my wrongs be repaired by my merely leaving them behind me. I cannot
take money from your hands as the price of your tranquillity, and as a
commutation for my good name, and the just rewards of my professional
labours. My wife and I will not remove from Deerbrook. We shall
stay, and endeavour to discharge our duty, and to bear our wrongs,
till our neighbours learn to understand us better than they do.

"You will permit to say, with the respect which I feel, that we
sympathise fully in the distress of mind which you must be
experiencing. If you should find comfort in doing us manful justice,
we shall congratulate you yet more than ourselves: if not, we shall
grieve for you only the more deeply.

"My wife joins me in what I have said, and in kindly regards.

"Yours sincerely,

"Edward Hope."

Edward had left his seal with Hester. She sealed the letter, rang for
Charles, and charged him to deliver it into Mr Rowland's own hands,
placed the copy in her bosom to show to Margaret, and returned to the
parlour. Mrs Grey, who was alone with Hope, stopped short in what she
was saying.

"Go on," said Hope. "We have no secrets here, and no fears of being
frightened--for one another any more than for ourselves. Mrs Grey was
saying, my dear, that Mr Walcot is very popular here already; and that
everybody is goin