ew that you
were going in a day or two, and that was enough for me after what I
had seen in the afternoon."

"You saw nothing in the afternoon," Captain Mallett said, angrily.
"The girl's father and mother were at home. We were all chatting
together until we came out. She came to the trap with me while they
stood at the open window. It was not more than a minute before I
drove off. I have not spoken to the girl half a dozen times since
she was a little child.

"Why, man, if everyone took such insane fancies in his head as you
do, no man would dare to speak to a woman at all.

"However," he went on in an altered voice, "this is not a time for
anger. You are very ill, Lechmere, but the doctor has not given you
up, and I trust that you will yet get round and will be able to
prove to your own satisfaction that, whatever has happened to this
poor girl, I, at least, am wholly innocent of it. But should you
not get over this hurt, I should not like you to go to your grave
believing that I had done you this great wrong. I speak to you as
to a dying man, and having no interest in deceiving you, and I
swear to you before Heaven that I know absolutely nothing of this.
I, too, may fall from a rebel shot before long, and I thank God
that I can meet you before Him as an innocent man in this matter.

"I must be going, for I see the doctor coming to fetch me. Goodbye,
lad, we may not meet again, though I trust we shall; but if not, I
give you my full forgiveness for that shot you fired at me. It was
the result of a strange mistake, but had I acted as you believed, I
should have well deserved the death you intended for me."

"Confound it, Mallett, there seems no end of mischief from your
visit here. In the first place, you were nearly knocked over
yourself, and now there is this man lying insensible. So for
goodness' sake get off to your room again, and lie down and keep
yourself quiet for the rest of the day. I shall have you
demoralising the whole ward if you stay here."

Captain Mallett walked back with a much feebler and less steady
step than that with which he had entered the hospital. He had some
doubts whether the man who had made this strange accusation and had
so nearly taken his life was really sane, and whether he had not
altogether imagined the conversation which he declared he had heard
in the garden. He remembered now the sudden way in which George
Lechmere had turned round and gone away when he saw him saying
goo