r being balked of a
confession and explanation, he gravely answered, that she did not know
what she was talking of; and his father led away from the subject.
Indeed, Dr. May was full of kindness and consideration, being evidently
not only grateful for the discovery, but touched by his entire absence
of exulting triumph, and his strong sense of awe in the retribution.

That changed and awe-struck manner impressed both the sisters, so that
all the evening Ethel felt subdued as by a strange shock, and even
through the night and morning could hardly realize that it was intense
relief--joy, not sorrow--that made her feel so unlike herself, and that
the burthen was taken away from her heart. Even then, there was a
trembling of anxiety. The prisoner might be set free; but who could
give back to him the sister who had pined away in exile, or the three
years of his youthful brightness? There might be better things in
store; but she knew she must not look again for the boy of ingenuous
countenance, whose chivalrous devotion to herself had had such a charm,
even while she tried to prize it at its lightest worth. It was foolish
to recollect it with a pang, but there was no helping it. In the great
tragedy, she had forgotten that the pretty comedy was over, but she
regretted it, rather as she did the pleasant baby-days of Aubrey and
Gertrude.

Indeed, during the day of suspense, while the two physicians were gone
to London, taking with them the papers, and a minute detail of the
evidence at the trial, Gertrude's high spirits, triumph over Charles
Cheviot, and desire to trumpet forth the good news, were oppressive.
How many times that day was Mab stroked, and assured that her master
would come back! And how often did the two sisters endeavour to
persuade themselves that she was not grown broader in the back! Mary
was, of course, told early in the day, but Gertrude got less sympathy
from her than answered to that damsel's extortionate expectations, for,
according to her wicked account, Mary's little Charlie had sneezed
three times, and his mamma must regret what sent all the medical
science of Stoneborough away by the early train.

However, Tom came home at night. The interview had been satisfactory.
The letters received in the morning had prepared the way, and revived
the recollection of the unsatisfactory case of Leonard Axworthy Ward,
and of the representations of the then Mayor of Market Stoneborough.
After all the new