he felt deeply
disturbed.

After the reading of the will the assembled relatives dispersed from the
room, leaving the two executors to converse together.

When Joseph Brent found himself alone with his friend Stephen Lyle he
gave way to his feelings and said:

"My heart is full of compunction."

"Why?" gravely inquired Mr. Lyle.

"Because I should have confided in the dear old friend who put so much
trust in me. I should have told him my whole miserable past history. And
then, perhaps, he never would have given me so great a mark of his
esteem. And Heaven knows I fully intended to tell him before asking him
to accept me as a suitor of his granddaughter, even though it had cost
me the loss of her who is dearer to me than life. But I put off the
painful task, and now it is too late. And I feel as if I had obtained
the honors he has conferred upon me by a fraud. No less!" said Joseph
Brent, covering his face with his hands.

"My brother, you are morbid on this subject. Certainly you intended to
tell him before asking to marry his granddaughter. And most certainly it
would have been right for you to do so, had he remained among us. But he
is gone. And you are free from blame. If you must tell any one tell the
girl you love, and who loves and trusts you, for it is now no one's
business but hers and yours. Or, rather, because you would never do
yourself justice, let me tell her how, once a poor, motherless boy, left
to himself, lost his way in the world and strayed even to the very brink
of perdition. And how nobly since that he has, by the grace of Heaven,
redeemed and consecrated his life. And then see if she will not place
her hand in yours for good and all."

"You always comfort and strengthen me," said the young man, seizing and
wringing the hand of his friend.

And then they consulted about the will of the late Dr. Jones, and the
arrangements to be made with his estates and the disposition to be made
of his heiress.

"We are her guardians," said Mr. Lyle; "but neither you nor I, being
bachelors both, have a proper home to offer her. Nor will it be well for
her to live at Beresford Manors, with no one but her colored servants.
Mrs. Fanning has invited her to remain here for the present, and really
this house seems to be the best place for her just now. But, after all,
the decision must be left to herself, and she must choose her own home."

Mr. Brent agreed perfectly with the views of Mr. Lyle.

And later