st triumphant when the danger which
had been escaped was appreciated. There had been something of the same
feeling at Pollington among the Shands--who had no doubt allowed
themselves to think that Maria had been ill-treated by John Caldigate.
He ought to have married Maria,--at least such was the opinion of the
ladies of the family, who were greatly impressed with the importance of
the little book which had been carried away. But in regard to the
Australian marriage, they had differed among themselves. That Maria
should have escaped the terrible doom which had befallen Mrs. Bolton's
daughter, was, of course, a source of comfort. But Maria herself would
never believe the evil story. John Caldigate had not been--well, perhaps
not quite true to her. So much she acknowledged gently with the germ of
a tear in her eye. But she was quite sure that he would not have married
Hester Bolton while another wife was living in Australia. She arose
almost to enthusiasm as she vindicated his character from so base a
stain. He had been, perhaps, a little unstable in his affections,--as
men are so commonly. But not even when the jury found their verdict,
could she be got to believe that the John Caldigate whom she had known
would have betrayed a girl whom he loved as he was supposed to have
betrayed Hester Bolton. The mother and sisters, who knew the softness of
Maria's disposition,--and who had been more angry than their sister with
the man who had been wicked enough to carry away Thomson's 'Seasons' in
his portmanteau without marrying the girl who had put it there,--would
not agree to this. The verdict, at any rate, was a verdict. John
Caldigate was in prison. The poor young woman with her infant was a
nameless, unfortunate creature. All this might have happened to their
Maria. 'I should always have believed him innocent,' said Maria, wiping
away the germ of the tear with her knuckle.

The matter was very often discussed in the doctor's house at
Pollington,--as it was, indeed, by the public generally, and especially
in the eastern counties. But in this house there a double interest
attached to it. In the first place, there was Maria's escape,--which the
younger girls were accustomed to talk of as having been 'almost
miraculous;' and then there was Dick's absolute disappearance. It had
been declared at the trial, on behalf of Caldigate, that if Dick could
have been put into the witness-box, he would have been able to swear
that there had