the densest bewilderment, looking alternately at one and
another of the group before him.

"What, in the name of all that's incomprehensible, does this mean? Kate,
in Heaven's name, what have you been talking about?"

Miss Danton actually laughed at her father's mystified face.

"Sit down, papa, and I'll tell you all about it. Here!"

She wheeled up his chair and made him be seated, then leaning over the
back, in her clear, sweet voice, she lucidly repeated the tale Agnes
Darling had told her. The Captain and his wife sat utterly astounded;
and Agnes, with her face hidden, was sobbing in her chair.

"Heaven bless me!" ejaculated the astonished master of Danton Hall. "Can
I believe my ears? Agnes Darling, Harry's wife!"

"Yes, Captain," Doctor Frank said, "she is your son's wife--his innocent
and deeply-injured wife. The man Crosby, in what he believed to be his
dying hour, solemnly testified, in the presence of a clergyman, to her
unimpeachable purity and fidelity. It was the evil work of that villain
Furniss, from first to last. I have the written testimony of William
Crosby in my pocket at this moment. He is alive and well, and married to
the lady of whom he was speaking when your son shot him. I earnestly
hope you will receive this poor child, and unite her to her husband, for
I am as firmly convinced of her innocence as I am of my own existence at
this moment."

"Receive her!" Captain Danton cried, with the water in his eyes. "That I
will, with all my heart. Poor little girl--poor child," he said, going
over and taking the weeping wife into his arms. "What a trial you have
undergone! But it is over now, I trust. Thank Heaven my son is no
murderer, and under Heaven, thanks to you, Doctor Danton. Don't cry,
Agnes--don't cry. I am heartily rejoiced to find I have another
daughter."

"Oh, take me to Harry!" Agnes pleaded. "Let me tell him I am innocent!
Let me hear him say he forgives me!"

"Upon my word, I think the forgiveness should come from the other side,"
said the Captain. "He was always a hot-headed, foolish boy, but he has
received a lesson, I think, he will never forget. How say you, Doctor,
may this foolish little girl go to that foolish boy?"

"I think not yet," the Doctor replied. "In his present weak state the
shock would be too much for him. He must be prepared first. How is he
this evening?"

"Much better, not at all delirious."

"I will go and have a look at him," said Doctor Frank, risin