k of it,' cried her father. 'For truth's sake, for justice's
sake, for the country's sake, I can not, will not, believe it will go
wrong. There is a Providence, after all, Ethel!'

And the Doctor went away, afraid alike of hope and despondency, and
Ethel thought of the bright young face, of De Wilton, of Job, and of
the martyrs; and when she was not encouraging Aubrey, or soothing
Averil, her heart would sink, and the tears that would not come would
have been very comfortable.

It was well for all that the assizes were so near that the suspense was
not long protracted; for it told upon all concerned. Leonard, when the
Doctor saw him again, was of the same way of thinking, but his manner
was more agitated; he could not sleep, or if he slept, the
anticipations chased away in the day-time revenged themselves in his
dreams; and he was very unhappy, also, about his sister, whose illness
continued day after day. She was not acutely ill, but in a constant
state of low fever, every faculty in the most painful state of tension,
convinced that she was quite able to get up and go to Leonard, and that
her detention was mere cruelty; and then, on trying to rise, refused by
fainting. Her searching questions and ardent eyes made it impossible
to keep any feature in the case from her knowledge. Sleep was
impossible to her; and once when Henry tried the effect of an anodyne,
it produced a semi-delirium, which made him heartily repent of his
independent measure. At all times she was talking--nothing but the
being left with a very stolid maid-servant ever closed her lips, and
she so greatly resented being thus treated, that the measure was seldom
possible. Henry seldom left her. He was convinced that Leonard's
sentence would be hers likewise, and he watched over her with the
utmost tenderness and patience with her fretfulness and waywardness,
never quitting her except on their brother's behalf, when Ethel or Mary
would take his place. Little Minna was always to be found on her small
chair by the bed-side, or moving about like a mouse, sometimes
whispering her one note, 'They can't hurt him, if he has not done it,'
and still quietly working at the pair of slippers that had been begun
for his birthday present. Mary used to bring Ella, and take them out
walking in the least-frequented path; but though the little sisters
kissed eagerly, and went fondly hand in hand, they never were sorry to
part: Ella's spirits oppressed Minna, an