Dick?" Yet, anything that contributed to Dick's happiness at
this miserable juncture was not to be neglected. Therefore, he received
her.

Dora was shocked to see the change in the clergyman. His hand trembled
when it met hers, and his eyes looked anywhere but into her face.

"Mr. Swinton, you can guess why I have come."

"I think I know. You have heard the glad news--indeed, everyone seems to
have heard it--that my son has been given back to me."

"And to me, Mr. Swinton."

"What! Then, you do not turn your back upon him, Miss Dundas!" he cried,
with tears in his voice.

"I have come to you, Mr. Swinton, to find out where he is, that I may go
to him, and hear from his own lips a denial of the atrocious charge
brought against him by the bank."

"Yes, yes, of course! I don't wonder that you find it hard to believe."
The guilty rector fidgeted nervously, and covered his confusion by
bringing forward a chair.

"I cannot stay, Mr. Swinton, thank you. I have just run down to beg you
to put me in communication with your son. Oh, you can't think what it has
meant to me. It has saved me from an unhappy marriage."

"Your engagement to Mr. Ormsby is broken off?"

"Yes."

"Because you think you'll be able to marry Dick?"

"Yes. Why do you speak of Dick like that?" she asked, with a sudden
sinking at the heart. "Surely, you do not join in the general
condemnation--you, his own father! Oh, it isn't true what they told
me--that he's a forger, who will have to answer to the law, and go to
prison. It isn't true."

"Dick himself is the only person who can answer your questions."

"But where is he? I suppose I can write to him?"

"He's in hiding," said the rector, brokenly. The words seemed to be
choking him.

"In hiding! Dick, who faced a dozen rifles and flung defiance in the
teeth of his country's enemies--in hiding!"

"Just for the present--just for the present. You see, they would arrest
him. It's so much better to prepare a defense when one has liberty
than--than--from the Tombs."

"Then, you will not tell me where he is?"

The information Dora vainly sought came to her by an accident. Netty,
unaware of the presence of a visitor in the house, walked into the study,
and commenced to speak before she was well into the room.

"Father, Dick wants the papers. He's finished the book and--Oh, Miss
Dundas!"

"He is here--in this house?" cried Dora, flushing angrily at the rector's
want of trust. "Oh, why didn't