Catherine, if there is no proof of my love for you
in what I have resisted--and no remembrance of all that I owe to you in
what I have confessed."

She ventured a little nearer to him. "Can I believe you?"

"Put me to the test."

She instantly took him at his word. "When Miss Westerfield has left us,
promise not to see her again."

"I promise."

"And not even to write to her."

"I promise."

She went back to the writing-table. "My heart is easier," she said,
simply. "I can be merciful to her now."

After writing a few lines, she rose and handed the paper to him. He
looked up from it in surprise. "Addressed to Mrs. MacEdwin!" he said.

"Addressed," she answered, "to the only person I know who feels a true
interest in Miss Westerfield. Have you not heard of it?"

"I remember," he said--and read the lines that followed:

"I recommend Miss Westerfield as a teacher of young children, having
had ample proof of her capacity, industry, and good temper while she has
been governess to my child. She leaves her situation in my service
under circumstances which testify to her sense of duty and her sense of
gratitude."

"Have I said," she asked, "more than I could honorably and truly
say--even after what has happened?"

He could only look at her; no words could have spoken for him as his
silence spoke for him at that moment. When she took back the written
paper there was pardon in her eyes already.

The last worst trial remained to be undergone; she faced it resolutely.
"Tell Miss Westerfield that I wish to see her."

On the point of leaving the room, Herbert was called back. "If you
happen to meet with my mother," his wife added, "will you ask her to
come to me?"

Mrs. Presty knew her daughter's nature; Mrs. Presty had been waiting
near at hand, in expectation of the message which she now received.

Tenderly and respectfully, Mrs. Linley addressed herself to her mother.
"When we last met, I thought you spoke rashly and cruelly. I know now
that there was truth--_some_ truth, let me say--in what offended me at
the time. If you felt strongly, it was for my sake. I wish to beg your
pardon; I was hasty, I was wrong."

On an occasion when she had first irritated and then surprised him,
Randal Linley had said to Mrs. Presty, "You have got a heart, after
all!" Her reply to her daughter showed that view of her character to be
the right one. "Say no more, my dear," she answered "_I_ was hasty; _I_
was wrong."

The wo