nd the faces so dear to him; his heart was heavy with pity for him. One
might call him coward and egotist all one would; at the end remained the
fact of a love which, if it could not endure heroically, was still a
deep and strong affection, doubtless the deepest and strongest thing in
the man's weak and shallow nature. It might be his truest inspiration,
and if it prompted him to venture everything, and to abide by whatever
might befall him, for the sake of being near those he loved, and
enjoying the convict's wretched privilege of looking on them now and
then, who should gainsay him?

Matt took Wade in on his way to Putney's office, to lay this question
before him, and he answered it for him in the same breath: "Certainly no
one less deeply concerned than the man's own flesh and blood could
forbid him."

"I'm not sure," said Wade, "that even his own flesh and blood would have
a supreme right there. It may be that love, and not duty, is the highest
thing in life. Oh, I know how we reason it away, and say that _true_
love is unselfish and can find its fruition in the very sacrifice of our
impulses; and we are fond of calling our impulses blind, but God alone
knows whether they are blind. The reasoned sacrifice may satisfy the
higher soul, but what about the simple and primitive natures which it
won't satisfy?"

For answer, Matt told how Northwick had come back, at the risk of
arrest, for an hour with his children, and was found in the empty house
that had been their home, and brought to them: how he had besought them
to let him stay, but they had driven him back to his exile. Matt
explained how he was on his way to the lawyer, at Adeline's frantic
demand, to go all over the case again, and see if something could not be
done to bring Northwick safely home. He had himself no hope of finding
any loophole in the law, through which the fugitive could come and go;
if he returned, Matt felt sure that he would be arrested and convicted,
but he was not sure that this might not be the best thing for all. "You
know," he said, "I've always believed that if he could voluntarily
submit himself to the penalty of his offence, the penalty would be the
greatest blessing for him on earth; the only blessing for his ruined
life."

"Yes," Wade answered, "we have always thought alike about that, and
perhaps this torment of longing for his home and children, may be the
divine means of leading him to accept the only mercy possible with God