either of us opened our
lips about it, though each of us knew what the other thought."

"I know what you mean, Lechmere. He told me all about it."

"Well, Squire, you may be sure, when we knew that we had wronged
him, how the wife and I fretted that we did not know where to write
to, nor how to set about finding out where he was, and so you can
guess how pleased we were when we heard from you that he was with
your regiment, and that he had saved your life at the risk of his
own.

"We did not know then, Squire, that if he had had twenty lives he
would have done right to have risked them all for you. He told us
the whole story yesterday--just to mother, me and Bob. I can't tell
you yet, Squire, what we thought of it. I do not know that I shall
ever be able to tell you, and we shall never cease to thank the
good Lord for saving George from being a murderer in his madness--a
murderer of our own Squire--and to bless you, Major, that you
should not only have forgiven him and kept his crime from everyone,
but should have taken him in hand, as he says, as if it had never
happened."

"There was no occasion for him to have said anything about it,
Lechmere. He was undoubtedly more or less mad at the time. Upon the
whole, I think that the affair has made him a better man. Up to the
time when he saved my life, he did his duty as a soldier well, and
was a most devoted servant to me, but the weight of this business
pressed heavily upon him, and in spite of all I could say he held
himself aloof as much as possible from his comrades; but after that
he changed altogether. He felt, as he told me, that God would not
have given him this opportunity of saving the life that he had so
nearly taken had He not forgiven him, and his spirits rose, and
while before he certainly was not popular among his comrades--a
reserved man never is--he became a general favourite.

"The officers, of course, showed a good deal of interest in him
after what he had done. He could have been a sergeant in the course
of a month, but he refused corporal's stripes when they were
offered to him on the day after the battle, saying that he
preferred remaining with me, though the Colonel told him that,
after what he had done, he would stand a good chance of promotion,
after two or three years' service, as a sergeant. He told me that
he knew his jealous disposition had been a sort of trouble to you;
but I am sure that he will never worry you in that way again. I
be