up; you
must not faint," Grey continued in alarm, as he felt his father press
heavily against him, and saw the ghastly pallor on his face.

"Bessie--your wife--the heir! And does she know what we do?" Mr.
Jerrold gasped, and Grey replied:

"Yes, everything--and knew it before I married her. Listen, and I will
tell you all."

Ringing the bell, Grey bade the servant who appeared bring a glass of
wine, which he made his father swallow, and then, supporting him with
his arm, he told him everything, from the night when he had knelt upon
the snow in the woods and asked to be forgiven for his grandfather's
sin, down to the present time.

"And you knew it all these years when I was trying to hide it from you,"
Mr. Jerrold said; "and you have worked while I have only sat still and
brooded; and you have found the heir in Bessie. Are you sure it is
Bessie? Oh, Grey! God bless you, my boy! You do not know what a load of
care you have taken from me, for, though my father's sin is none the
less, it does not hurt me as much, and I feel as if I could forgive him
all. I do not believe he was so much in fault. The peddler struck him
first, you know. I must see Hannah, and hear the story again. What time
do you return to Allington?"

Grey told him, and he continued:

"I shall go with you--first to see Hannah, and then to Grey's Park in
the evening. Poor Hannah! she has had such a lonely life!"

Three hours later and Mr. Jerrold was driven to the house in the
pasture-land, in the phaeton which Lucy had sent to the station to meet
Grey, who walked to Grey's Park, where Bessie greeted him as rapturously
as if weeks instead of hours had passed since she saw him.

Mr. Jerrold had expected to find his sister alone, and was a little
disappointed to see the Rev. Mr. Sanford there, cozily taking tea in the
pleasant south room, where the morning-glories were trained across the
windows, and the early June roses were looking in.

"Oh, Burton, how glad I am to see you! and how well you are looking!"
Hannah cried, as she went forward to meet her brother, in whom she saw a
change, as if he had suddenly grown young.

And he did feel younger and happier than he had in years; and as soon as
Mr. Sanford took his leave, which he did immediately after tea, Burton
plunged at once into the principal object of his visit.

"I have come," he said, "to open the doors and windows of that ghostly
room, and let in the light and air of Heaven. Grey has tol