is?"

"I mean," returned the Carrier, "to do her the greatest kindness, and
make her the best reparation, in my power. I can release her from the
daily pain of an unequal marriage, and the struggle to conceal it. She
shall be as free as I can render her."

"Make _her_ reparation!" exclaimed Tackleton, twisting and turning his
great ears with his hands. "There must be something wrong here. You
didn't say that, of course."

The Carrier set his grip upon the collar of the toy merchant, and shook
him like a reed.

"Listen to me!" he said. "And take care that you hear me right. Listen
to me. Do I speak plainly?"

"Very plainly indeed," answered Tackleton.

"As if I meant it?"

"Very much as if you meant it."

"I sat upon that hearth, last night, all night," exclaimed the Carrier.
"On the spot where she has often sat beside me, with her sweet face
looking into mine. I called up her whole life day by day. I had her dear
self, in its every passage, in review before me. And, upon my soul, she
is innocent, if there is One to judge the innocent and guilty!"

Staunch Cricket on the Hearth! Loyal Household Fairies!

"Passion and distrust have left me!" said the Carrier; "and nothing but
my grief remains. In an unhappy moment some old lover, better suited to
her tastes and years than I, forsaken, perhaps, for me, against her
will, returned. In an unhappy moment, taken by surprise, and wanting
time to think of what she did, she made herself a party to his treachery
by concealing it. Last night she saw him, in the interview we witnessed.
It was wrong. But, otherwise than this, she is innocent, if there is
truth on earth!"

"If that is your opinion----" Tackleton began.

"So, let her go!" pursued the Carrier. "Go, with my blessing for the
many happy hours she has given me, and my forgiveness for any pang she
has caused me. Let her go, and have the peace of mind I wish her! She'll
never hate me. She'll learn to like me better when I'm not a drag upon
her, and she wears the chain I have riveted more lightly. This is the
day on which I took her, with so little thought for her enjoyment, from
her home. To-day she shall return to it, and I will trouble her no more.
Her father and mother will be here to-day--we had made a little plan for
keeping it together--and they shall take her home. I can trust her
there, or anywhere. She leaves me without blame, and she will live so I
am sure. If I should die--I may perhaps while she is s