Mr. Johnson was hardly restrained by his
compassion for the orphan from throwing up the executorship in disgust.
Mr. Ness roused himself from his scholarlike abstraction to labour at the
examination of books, parchments, and papers, for Ellinor's sake. Sir
Frank Holster professed himself only a trustee for Ford Bank.

Meanwhile she went on living at Ford Bank, quite unconscious of the state
of her father's affairs, but sunk into a deep, plaintive melancholy,
which affected her looks and the tones of her voice in such a manner as
to distress Miss Monro exceedingly. It was not that the good lady did
not quite acknowledge the great cause her pupil had for grieving--deserted
by her lover, her father dead--but that she could not bear the outward
signs of how much these sorrows had told on Ellinor. Her love for the
poor girl was infinitely distressed by seeing the daily wasting away, the
constant heavy depression of spirits, and she grew impatient of the
continual pain of sympathy. If Miss Monro could have done something to
relieve Ellinor of her woe, she would have been less inclined to scold
her for giving way to it.

The time came when Miss Monro could act; and after that, there was no
more irritation on her part. When all hope of Ellinor's having anything
beyond the house and grounds of Ford Bank was gone; when it was proved
that all the legacies bequeathed by Mr. Wilkins not one farthing could
ever be paid; when it came to be a question how far the beautiful
pictures and other objects of art in the house were not legally the
property of unsatisfied creditors, the state of her father's affairs was
communicated to Ellinor as delicately as Mr. Ness knew how.

She was drooping over her work--she always drooped now--and she left off
sewing to listen to him, leaning her head on the arm which rested on the
table. She did not speak when he had ended his statement. She was
silent for whole minutes afterwards; he went on speaking out of very
agitation and awkwardness.

"It was all the rascal Dunster's doing, I've no doubt," said he, trying
to account for the entire loss of Mr. Wilkins's fortune.

To his surprise she lifted up her white stony face, and said slowly and
faintly, but with almost solemn calmness:

"Mr. Ness, you must never allow Mr. Dunster to be blamed for this!"

"My dear Ellinor, there can be no doubt about it. Your father himself
always referred to the losses he had sustained by Dunster's
disappeara