e you
were here. Won't you go away from Mount Hope? I want you to
forget,--no--" for she was about to speak; "wait until I have
finished;--even if I am acquitted this will always be something
discreditable in the eyes of the world, it's going to follow me through
life! It is going to be hard for me to bear, it will be doubly hard for
you, dear. I want your father to take you away and keep you away until
this thing is settled. I don't want your name linked with mine; that's
why I am sorry you came here, that's why you must never come here
again."

"You mustn't ask me to go away from Mount Hope, John!" said Elizabeth.
"I am ready and willing to face the future with you; I was never more
willing than now!"

"You don't understand, Elizabeth!" said North. "We are just at the
beginning. The trial, and all that, is still before us--long days of
agony--"

"And you would send me away when you will most need me!" she said, with
gentle reproach.

"I wish to spare you--"

"But wherever I am, it will be the same!"

"No, no,--you must forget--!"

"If I can't,--what then?" she asked, looking up into his face.

"I want you to try!" he urged.

She shook her head.

"Dear, I have lived through all this; I have asked myself if I really
cared so much that nothing counted against the little comfort I might be
to you; so much that the thought of what I am to you would outweigh
every other consideration, and I am sure of myself. If I were not, I
should probably wish to escape from it all. I am as much afraid of
public opinion as any one, and as easily hurt, but my love has carried
me beyond the point where such things matter!"

"My dear! My dear! I am not worthy of such love."

"You must let me be the judge of that."

"Suppose the verdict is--guilty?" he asked.

"No,--no, it will never be that!" But the color left her cheeks.

"I don't suppose it will be," agreed North hastily.

It was a cruel thing to force this doubt on her.

"You won't send me away, John?" she entreated. "If I were to leave Mount
Hope now it would break my heart! I--we--my father and I, wish every one
to know that our confidence in you is unshaken."

North turned to the general with a look of inquiry, of appeal. Something
very like a sigh escaped the older man's lips, but he squared his
shoulders manfully for the burdens they must bear. He said quietly:

"Let us consider a phase of the situation that Elizabeth and I have been
discussing this aftern