for such a sufferer. If there were no one but him concerned, we could
not hesitate in urging him to return. But the innocent who must endure
the shame of his penalty with him--"

"They are ready for that. Would it be worse than what they have learned
to endure?"

"Perhaps not. But I was not thinking of his children alone. You,
yourself, Matt; your family--"

Matt threw up his arms impatiently, and made for the door. "There's no
question of _me_. And if _they_ could not endure their portion,--the
mere annoyance of knowing the slight for them in the minds of vulgar
people,--I should be ashamed of them."

"Well, you are right, Matt," said his friend. "God bless you and guide
you!" added the priest.

The lawyer had not yet come to his office, and Matt went to find him at
his house. Putney had just finished his breakfast, and they met at his
gate, and he turned back indoors with Matt. "Well, you know what's
happened, I see," he said, after the first glance at Matt's face.

"Yes, I know; and now what can be done? Are you sure we've considered
every point? Isn't there some chance--"

Putney shook his head, and then bit off a piece of tobacco before he
began to talk. "I've been over the whole case in my mind this morning,
and I'm perfectly certain there isn't the shadow of a chance of his
escaping trial if he gives himself up. That's what you mean, I suppose?"

"Yes; that's what I mean," said Matt, with a certain disappointment. He
supposed he had nerved himself for the worst, but he found he had been
willing to accept something short of it.

"At times I'm almost sorry he got off," said Putney. "If we could have
kept him, and surrendered him to the law, I believe we could have staved
off the trial, though we couldn't have prevented it, and I believe we
could have kept him out of State's prison on the ground of insanity."
Matt started impatiently. "Oh, I don't mean that it could be shown that
he was of unsound mind when he used the company's funds and tampered
with their books, though I have my own opinion about that. But I feel
sure that he's of unsound mind at present: and I believe we could show
it so clearly in court that the prosecution would find it impossible to
convict. We could have him sent to the insane asylum, and that would be
a creditable exit from the affair in the public eye; it would have a
retroactive effect that would popularly acquit him of the charges
against him."

Putney could not forego a misc