ing to you from one death-bed, and hearken to a
dying appeal from another."

"Sir, I respect your character, and I revere your office; but
if what you have to say relates to me, and not to yourself,
let us break off this conversation at once. There are
subjects, there are names which I never suffer any human being
to allude to before me; and the sacred character which you
bear, gives you no right to force them upon me."

"It has given me the right to receive from your dying wife a
confession--"

Mr. Lacy stopped and hesitated; a convulsive emotion had
passed over Edward's face, and he turned frightfully pale; but
in an instant his features resumed their iron rigidity, and he
waved his hand impatiently. "And it gives me the right,"
continued Mr. Lacy, "to tell you that you are committing a
fearful injustice; that you are under a fatal delusion."

"She will die, then, as she has lived!" exclaimed Edward with
violence. "She has lied, then, to God, as well as to me."

"Beware! beware," returned Mr. Lacy, "how you speak of one
whom God has absolved,--whom He will receive; for He shows
great mercy where man has none."

"There are crimes," rejoined Edward, fiercely,--"there are
crimes which God may forgive but which man cannot."

He glanced at the letter which Mr. Lacy held; and, as he
recognised the handwriting, the blood rushed violently to his
face, and then forsaking it, left it as pale as ashes.

"Is _he_ dead?" he asked, faintly, as he pointed to it.

"Life and reason are both forsaking him; but by a last effort,
he gathered strength to write what you _must_ read. You must
read it; for a voice from the grave calls upon you to do so.
You must read it; for your wife is dying, and she must be
justified in your eyes; she must be forgiven by you, before
her spirit returns to Him who gave it. Listen to me, listen to
me, Mr. Middleton: as you fear God, and hope for Heaven, it is
not the cause of a faithless life I plead; it is that of a
deeply-injured and much-belied woman; she has sinned, indeed,
but not against you. God has, through my mouth, absolved
her,--at His altar He has received her; and shall you, whom she
has loved too much--too fondly--too tremblingly,--with a
worship due to Him alone; shall you refuse her that hearing
which, with dying accents, she craves,--that justice which, in
her name, I demand from you?"

"God forgive me!" cried Edward, wildly; "God forgive me! for I
cannot forgive her. She has