k firmly restrained him. "Wait!" he whispered. "You
don't know what is coming." Having said that, he turned toward Anne.
Blanche's look had gone to the heart of the faithful woman who loved
her. Anne's face was turned away--the tears were forcing themselves
through the worn weak hands that tried vainly to hide them.

The formal objections of the lawyers were registered once more. Sir
Patrick addressed himself to his niece for the last time.

"You believe what Arnold Brinkworth has said; you believe what Miss
Silvester has said. You know that not even the thought of marriage was
in the mind of either of them, at the inn. You know--whatever else may
happen in the future--that there is not the most remote possibility of
either of them consenting to acknowledge that they ever have been, or
ever can be, Man and Wife. Is that enough for you? Are you willing,
before this inquiry proceeds any farther to take your husband's hand;
to return to your husband's protection; and to leave the rest to
me--satisfied with my assurance that, on the facts as they happened, not
even the Scotch Law can prove the monstrous assertion of the marriage at
Craig Fernie to be true?"

Lady Lundie rose. Both the lawyers rose. Arnold sat lost in
astonishment. Geoffrey himself--brutishly careless thus far of all that
had passed--lifted his head with a sudden start. In the midst of the
profound impression thus produced, Blanche, on whose decision the whole
future course of the inquiry now turned, answered in these words:

"I hope you will not think me ungrateful, uncle. I am sure that Arnold
has not, knowingly, done me any wrong. But I can't go back to him until
I am first _certain_ that I am his wife."

Lady Lundie embraced her step-daughter with a sudden outburst of
affection. "My dear child!" exclaimed her ladyship, fervently. "Well
done, my own dear child!"

Sir Patrick's head dropped on his breast. "Oh, Blanche! Blanche!" Arnold
heard him whisper to himself; "if you only knew what you are forcing me
to!"

Mr. Moy put in his word, on Blanche's side of the question.

"I must most respectfully express my approval also of the course which
the young lady has taken," he said. "A more dangerous compromise than
the compromise which we have just heard suggested it is difficult to
imagine. With all deference to Sir Patrick Lundie, his opinion of the
impossibility of proving the marriage at Craig Fernie remains to be
confirmed as the right one. My own