g in the corner
of the room, with Rover at her side, the rude coffin, the open grave,
and the secret midnight burial, his breath came in long, shuddering
gasps, and the perspiration stood in great drops upon his forehead and
about his pallid lips. And when his father said, "I buried him here in
this room, under this bed, where I have slept ever since, and he is
there now," he started backward as suddenly as if the ghost of the
peddler had risen from the floor and confronted him. Then, staggering
forward, he would have fallen if Mr. Sanford had not caught him by the
arm and supported him a moment.

Bringing him a chair, the clergyman said to him, pityingly:

"Sit down, Mr. Jerrold, and try to compose yourself. You are not in
fault: no one can blame you."

"No, no, I know it; but it hurts me just the same. The disgrace! I can
never be happy again. Oh, Hannah, why did you let him tell me? I cannot
bear it, I cannot!" the wretched Burton moaned, and his father replied:

"Your sister has borne it for thirty-one years. Are you less brave than
she?"

"I don't know. Yes, I believe I am. I have more at stake than she. Our
positions are not the same. There is Geraldine, and Grey, I can never
look them in the face again, knowing what I know," Burton cried,
impetuously, and covering his face with his hands, he sobbed as strong
men never sob, save when some terrible storm, which they feel themselves
inadequate to meet, is beating pitilessly upon them.

"Oh, brother," Hannah said, in her soft, entreating voice, "this is
worse than all the rest. Don't take it so hard. It is not so bad as you
think. You will not be disgraced. Geraldine will never know: the world
will never know. Char--Mr. Sanford is just as safe as I. He will never
tell," and the dark eyes looked for one moment at the man whom, in her
excitement and forgetfulness, she had almost called by his Christian
name, and who, in response to the call and the look, went to her side,
and laying his hand upon her head, said, solemnly:

"As heaven is my witness, what I have heard here to-night shall never
pass my lips."

Pressing his hand for an instant upon Hannah's bowed head, he withdrew
it, but staid at her side until the recital was ended, and the old man,
who was sinking fast, said to him, in a faint whisper:

"You know all now, and why I could not join the church. It was too late
to tell the world of my guilt. God knew it. I believe he has baptized me
with His Holy