ng you, and trying to cover the robbery
by marrying you. Both my own lawyer, and Mr Slow, have told me that a
plain statement of the whole case must be prepared, so that any one
who cares to inquire may learn the whole truth, before I can venture
to do anything which might otherwise compromise my character. You
do not think of all this, Margaret, when you are angry with me."
Margaret, hanging down her head, confessed that she had not thought
of it.

"The difficulty would have been less, had you remained at the
Cedars."

Then she again lifted her head, and told him that that would have
been impossible. Let things go as they might, she knew that she had
been right in leaving her aunt's house.

There was not much more said between them, nor did he give her any
definite promise as to when he would see her again. He told her
that she might draw on Mr Slow for money if she wanted it, but that
she again declined. And he told her also not to withdraw Susanna
Mackenzie from her school at Littlebath--at any rate, not for
the present; and intimated also that Mr Slow would pay the
schoolmistress's bill. Then he took his leave of her. He had spoken
no word of love to her; but yet she felt, when he was gone, that her
case was not as hopeless now as it had seemed to be that morning.

CHAPTER XXIV

The Little Story of the Lion and the Lamb

During those three months of October, November, and December, Mr
Maguire was certainly not idle. He had, by means of pertinacious
inquiry, learned a good deal about Miss Mackenzie; indeed, he had
learned most of the facts which the reader knows, though not quite
all of them. He had seen Jonathan Ball's will, and he had seen Walter
Mackenzie's will. He had ascertained, through Miss Colza, that John
Ball now claimed the property by some deed said to have been executed
by Jonathan Ball previous to the execution of his will; and he
had also learned, from Miss Mackenzie's own lips, in Lady Ball's
presence, that she had engaged herself to marry the man who was thus
claiming her property. Why should Mr Ball want to marry her,--who
would in such a case be penniless,--but that he felt himself
compelled in that way to quell all further inquiry into the thing
that he was doing? And why should she desire to marry him, but that
in this way she might, as it were, go with her own property, and not
lose the value of it herself when compelled to surrender it to her
cousin? That she would have given