you will
agree with Mrs. Presty?

First Objection: Nobody has ever done such a thing before.

Second Objection: Penitent or not penitent, Mr. Herbert Linley doesn't
deserve it.

Third Objection: No respectable person will visit them.

First Reply: The question is not whether the thing has been done before,
but whether the doing of the thing is right in itself There is no clause
in the marriage service forbidding a wife to forgive her husband; but
there is a direct prohibition to any separation between them. It is,
therefore, not wrong to forgive Mr. Herbert Linley, and it is absolutely
right to marry him again.

Second Reply: When their child brings him home, and takes it for granted
that her father and mother should live together, _because_ they are her
father and mother, innocent Kitty has appealed from the Law of Divorce
to the Law of Nature. Whether Herbert Linley has deserved it or whether
he has not, there he is in the only fit place for him--and there is an
end of the second objection.

Third Reply: A flat contradiction to the assertion that no respectable
person will visit her. Mrs. Sarrazin will visit her. Yes, you will, my
dear! Not because I insist upon it--Do I ever insist on anything?
No; you will act on your own responsibility, out of compassion for a
misguided old woman. Judge for yourself when you read what follows, if
Mrs. Presty is not sadly in need of the good example of an ornament to
her sex.

The Evil Genius of the family joined us in the cottage parlor when our
consultations had come to an end. I had the honor of communicating the
decision at which we had arrived. Mrs. Presty marched to the door; and,
from that commanding position, addressed a few farewell remarks to her
daughter.

"I have done with you, Catherine. You have reached the limits of my
maternal endurance at last. I shall set up my own establishment, and
live again--in memory--with Mr. Norman and Mr. Presty. May you be happy.
I don't anticipate it."

She left the room--and came back again for a last word, addressed this
time to Randal Linley.

"When you next see your friend, Captain Bennydeck, give him my
compliments, Mr. Randal, and say I congratulate him on having been
jilted by my daughter. It would have been a sad thing, indeed, if such a
sensible man had married an idiot. Good-morning."

She left the room again, and came back again for another last word,
addressed on this occasion to me. Her better nature made an e