inducted of course
yet; but he has written to say he will come down on Saturday and
take matters in hand."

"The services on Sunday? Oh!" said Herbert, with as great a gasp of
relief as if he had been responsible for them; and, indeed, Rosamond
declared that both her husband and Mr. Bindon looked like new men
since Wil'sbro' was off their backs. Archie was coming back that
evening. Jenny much longed to show her two treasures to each other,
for it was a useless risk for the healthy man, and the sick one was
too weak and tired to wish for a new face, or the trouble of
speaking; nay, he could not easily bring himself to cheerful
acquiescence in even his favourite Lady Rose taking his sister's
place to set her free for an evening with Archie at the Hall.

Mrs. Poynsett was in the drawing-room. She had taken courage to
encounter the down-stair associations, saying she would make it no
sadder for the dear boy than she could help, and so Miles had
carried her down to meet one who had been always as one of her own
sons.

And thus it was that she gathered him into her embrace, while the
great strong man, only then fully realizing all the changes, sobbed
uncontrollably beside her.

"My boy, my poor Archie," she said, "you are come at last. Did you
not know you still had a mother to trust to?"

"I ought to have known it," said Archie, in a choked voice. "Oh
that I had seen Jenny in London!"

For indeed it had become plain that it had been his flight that had
given opportunity and substance to the accusation. If he had
remained, backed by the confidence of such a family as the
Poynsetts, Gadley would have seen that testimony in his favour would
be the safer and more profitable speculation; and Moy himself, as he
had said, would have testified to the innocence of a living man on
the spot, though he had let the blame rest on one whom he thought in
the depths of the sea. Archie's want of moral courage had been his
ruin. It had led him to the scene of temptation rather than resist
his companions, and had thus given colour to the accusation, and in
the absence of both Joanna and of his cousins, it had prevented him
from facing the danger.

This sense made him the more willing to be forbearing, when, after
dinner, the whole council sat round to hear in full the history of
the interview with Mr. Moy; Anne taking up her position beside
Frank, with whom, between her pencil and the finger-alphabet, she
had established suc