aid; I do hear;" and as he spoke he came round so that he
was standing near to her, but with his back to the fireplace. "I do
hear, and I blush to think that there is a man in England, holding
the position of a county magistrate, who can so forget all that is
due to honesty, to humanity, and to self-respect."

"You do not then think that I have been guilty of this thing?"

"Guilty--I think you guilty! No, nor does he think so. It is
impossible that he should think so. I am no more sure of my own
innocence than of yours;" and as he spoke he took both her hands and
looked into her face, and his eyes also were full of tears. "You
may be sure of this, that neither I nor Edith will ever think you
guilty."

"Dearest Edith," she said; she had never before called Sir
Peregrine's daughter-in-law by her Christian name, and as she now did
so she almost felt that she had sinned. But Sir Peregrine took it in
good part. "She is dearest," he said; "and be sure of this, that she
will be true to you through it all."

And so they stood for a while without further speech. He still held
both her hands, and the tears still stood in his eyes. Her eyes were
turned to the ground, and from them the tears were running fast. At
first they ran silently, without audible sobbing, and Sir Peregrine,
with his own old eyes full of salt water, hardly knew that she was
weeping. But gradually the drops fell upon his hand, one by one at
first, and then faster and faster; and soon there came a low sob, a
sob all but suppressed, but which at last forced itself forth, and
then her head fell upon his shoulder. "My dear," he said, himself
hardly able to speak; "my poor dear, my ill-used dear!" and as she
withdrew one hand from his, that she might press a handkerchief to
her face, his vacant arm passed itself round her waist. "My poor,
ill-used dear!" he said again, as he pressed her to his old heart,
and leaning over her he kissed her lips.

So she stood for some few seconds, feeling that she was pressed
close by the feeble pressure of his arm, and then she gradually sank
through from his embrace, and fell upon her knees at his feet. She
knelt at his feet, supporting herself with one arm upon the table,
and with the other hand she still held his hand over which her head
was bowed. "My friend," she said, still sobbing, and sobbing loudly
now; "my friend, that God has sent me in my trouble." And then, with
words that were wholly inaudible, she murmured some