, with soothing tenderness, as Emmeline's half-checked tears burst
forth again as she spoke of the agony she in secret endured, when in her
presence his character was traduced. "Your father will now leave no
means untried to discover whether indeed they are true or false.
Insinuations and reports have prejudiced his judgment more than is his
wont. He has gone now to Widow Langford, to hear her tale against
Jefferies, and if this last base charge he has brought against Arthur be
indeed proved against himself, it will be easy to convict him of other
calumnies; for the truth of this once made evident, it is clear that his
base machinations have been the secret engines of the prejudice against
Myrvin, for which no clear foundation has ever yet been discovered. You
will not doubt your father's earnestness in this proceeding, my
Emmeline, and you know him too well to believe he would for one moment
refrain from acknowledging to Mr. Myrvin the injustice he has done him,
if indeed it prove unfounded."

"And if his character be cleared from all stain--if not a whisper taint
his name, and his true excellence be known to all--oh, may we not hope?
mother, mother, you will not be inexorable; you will not, oh, you will
not condemn your child to misery!" exclaimed Emmeline, in a tone of
excitement, strongly contrasting with the hopelessness which had
breathed in every word before; and, bursting from her mother's detaining
hold, she suddenly knelt before her, and clasped her robe in the
wildness of her entreaty. "You will not refuse to make us happy; you
will not withhold your consent, on which alone depends the future
happiness of your Emmeline. You, who have been so good, so kind, so
fond,--oh, you will not sentence me to woe. Mother, oh, speak to me. I
care not how many years I wait: say, only say that, if his character be
cleared of all they have dared to cast upon it, I shall one day he his.
Do not turn from me, mother. Oh, bid me not despond; and yet and yet,
because he is poor, oh, would you, can you condemn me to despair?"

"Emmeline, Emmeline, do not wring my heart by these cruel words,"
replied Mrs. Hamilton, in a tone of such deep distress, that Emmeline's
imploring glance sunk before it, and feeling there was indeed no hope,
her weakened frame shook with the effort to restrain the bursting tears.
"Do not ask me to promise this; do not give me the bitter pain of
speaking that which you feel at this moment will only add to yo