"

"Part of it I heard; but not so clearly. I was told that she acquitted
you and I blessed her in my heart for it."

"Even more than that she did. As soon as she got home again, she wrote
to Robin Cockscroft--a very few words, but as strong as could be,
telling him that I should have no chance of justice if I were caught
just now; that she must have time to carry out her plans; that the Lord
would soon raise up good friends to help her; and as sure as there was
a God in heaven, she would bring the man who did it to the gallows. Only
that I must leave the land at once. And that is what I shall do
this very night. Now I have told you almost all. Mary, we must say
'good-by.'"

"But surely I shall hear from you sometimes?" said Mary, striving to be
brave, and to keep her voice from trembling. "Years and years, without a
word--and the whole world bitter against you and me! Oh, Robin, I think
that it will break my heart. And I must not even talk of you."

"Think of me, darling, while I think of you. Thinking is better than
talking, I shall never talk of you, but be thinking all the more.
Talking ruins thinking. Take this token of the time you saved me, and
give me that bit of blue ribbon, my Mary; I shall think of your eyes
every time I kiss it. Kiss it yourself before you give it to me."

Like a good girl, she did what she was told to do. She gave him the
love-knot from her breast, and stored his little trinket in that pure
shrine.

"But sometimes--sometimes, I shall hear of you?" she whispered,
lingering, and trembling in the last embrace.

"To be sure, you shall hear of me from time to time, through Robin and
Joan Cockscroft. I will not grieve you by saying, 'Be true to me,' my
noble one, and my everlasting love."

Mary was comforted, and ceased to cry. She was proud of him thus in the
depth of his trouble; and she prayed to God to bless him through the
long sad time.

CHAPTER XXXVII

FACT, OR FACTOR

"Papa, I have brought you a wonderful letter," cried Miss Janetta
Upround, toward supper-time of that same night; "and the most miraculous
thing about it is that there is no post to pay. Oh, how stupid I am! I
ought to have got at least a shilling out of you for postage."

"My dear, be sorry for your sins, and not for having failed to add to
them. Our little world is brimful of news just now, but nearly all of
it bad news. Why, bless me, this is in regular print, and it never has
passed through the post