sufferings.

After the wants of the sufferers had been supplied, Mr. Faxon listened
with horror and indignation to the tale of Dalhousie's confinement, and
the causes which led to it; for the overseer was so candid as to relate
all, not even omitting the bribe he had agreed to take of Jaspar.

"It is thus, Mr. Dalhousie, that our plans are defeated, when they are
unworthy," said he. "Let this be a lesson to you for the future. Never
do or countenance a wrong action, and, whatever befalls you in this
changing world, you will have an approving conscience to smile upon you,
and lighten the darkest hour of adversity. But your tale brings me
consolation. There is yet hope that Miss Dumont is alive. The cruel
story of her death has darkened the abode of many a warm heart, even in
spite of the reflection that she was a slave. She was a true woman, and
I pray that God may spare her yet many years to bless the needy and the
unfortunate."

Dalhousie felt the full weight of Mr. Faxon's rebuke, and acknowledged
the justice of the punishment he had received. Uncle Nathan heard with
astonishment the wickedness of which the uncle of Emily had been guilty,
and his simple New England heart was sorely perplexed by it. He had no
"idea" of such depravity, and he was tempted, even in spite of the
Scripture injunction to the contrary, to "thank God that he was not like
other men."

In the course of the conversation to which the incidents of the evening
had given rise, the honest farmer found an opportunity to broach the
subject of his mission; and the time was occupied, until a late hour, in
discussing the means of doing justice to the injured, in restoring to
Bellevue its rightful mistress.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

"To do a great right, do a little wrong."

SHAKSPEARE.

Emily Dumont remained a close prisoner in the rear apartment of
Maxwell's office. Dido, the old negress, was her only attendant during
her incarceration; for, though the room was supplied with every luxury
the most pampered appetite could desire, her confinement deserved no
better name. She recognized the place, and doubted not she should be
again subjected to the infamous persecution of her old enemy. She
wondered that he had not already presented himself, and concluded he
could not yet have returned from his up-river journey, or he would have
done so. No one visited her but the negress, whose conversation, in her
eagerness to serve the liberal propri