nd Hilda;
and I came over to England in August. I have seen all of you, except
Felicita."

"Oh! it was wicked! it was cruel!" sobbed Phebe, shivering. "Your mother
died, believing she was going to rejoin you; and I, oh! how I have
mourned for you!"

"Have you, Phebe?" he said sorrowfully; "but Felicita has been saved
from shame, and has been successful. She is too famous now for me to
retrace my steps, and get back into truthfulness. I can find no place
for repentance, let me seek it ever so carefully and with tears."

"But you have repented?" she whispered.

"Before God? yes!" he answered, "and I believe He has forgiven me. But
there is no way by which I can retrieve the past. I have forfeited
everything, and I am now shut out even from the duties of life. What
ought I to have done, Phebe? There was this way to save my mother, and
my children, and Felicita; and I took it. It has prospered for all of
them; they hold a different position in the world this day than they
could have done if I had lived."

"In this world, yes!" answered Phebe, with a touch of scorn in her
voice; "but cannot you see what you have done for Felicita? Oh! it would
have been better for her to have endured the shame of your first sin,
than bear such a burden of guilt. And you might have outlived the
disgrace. There are Christian people in the world who can forgive sin,
even as Christ forgives it. Even my poor father forgave it; and Mr.
Clifford, he is repenting now that he did not forgive you; it weighs him
down in his old age. It would have been better for you and Felicita if
you had borne the penalty of your crime."

"And our children, Phebe?" he said.

"Could not God have made it up to them?" she asked. "Did He make it
necessary for you to sin again on their account? Oh! if you had only
trusted Him! If you had only waited to see how Christ could turn even
the sins of the father into blessings for his children! They have missed
you; it may be, I cannot see clearly, they must miss you now all their
lives. It would break their hearts to learn all this. Whether they must
know it, I cannot tell."

"To what end should they know it?" he said. "Don't you see, Phebe, that
the distinction Felicita has won binds us to keep this secret? It cannot
be disclosed either to her or to them. I came to tell it to the man who
brought me here under a seal of secrecy."

"To Canon Pascal?" she exclaimed.

"Pascal?" he repeated, "ay? I remember him now. It