at him one might say that it would be soon. There
were moments when Mr. Prendergast hardly thought that he would live
through that frightful day.

But all of which we have yet spoken hardly operated upon the
baronet's mind in creating that stupor of sorrow which now weighed
him to the earth. It was none of these things that utterly broke him
down and crushed him like a mangled reed. He had hardly mind left
to remember his children. It was for the wife of his bosom that he
sorrowed.

The wife of his bosom! He persisted in so calling her through the
whole interview, and, even in his weakness, obliged the strong man
before him so to name her also. She was his wife before God, and
should be his to the end. Ah! for how short a time was that! "Is she
to leave me?" he once said, turning to his friend, with his hands
clasped together, praying that some mercy might be shown to his
wretchedness. "Is she to leave me?" he repeated, and then sank on his
knees upon the floor.

And how was Mr. Prendergast to answer this question? How was he to
decide whether or no this man and woman might still live together
as husband and wife? Oh, my reader, think of it if you can, and put
yourself for a moment in the place of that old family friend! "Tell
me, tell me; is she to leave me?" repeated the poor victim of all
this misery.

The sternness and justice of the man at last gave way. "No," said
he, "that cannot, I should think, be necessary. They cannot demand
that." "But you won't desert me?" said Sir Thomas, when this crumb
of comfort was handed to him. And he remembered as he spoke, the
bloodshot eyes of the miscreant who had dared to tell him that the
wife of his bosom might be legally torn from him by the hands of
another man. "You won't desert me?" said Sir Thomas; meaning by that,
to bind his friend to an obligation that, at any rate, his wife
should not be taken from him.

"No," said Mr. Prendergast, "I will not desert you; certainly not
that; certainly not that." Just then it was in his heart to promise
almost anything that he was asked. Who could have refused such solace
as this to a man so terribly overburthened?

But there was another point of view at which Mr. Prendergast had
looked from the commencement, but at which he could not get Sir
Thomas to look at all. It certainly was necessary that the whole
truth in this matter should be made known and declared openly. This
fair inheritance must go to the right owner and not t