innocent now."

"But you have not been married, Sepia! What should you know about
disgraceful things?"

"I will tell you when you are married, and not until then, Hesper.
There's a bribe to make you a good child, and do as you must--that is,
as your father and mother and Mr. Redmain would have you!"

While they talked, Godfrey, now seen, now vanishing, had become a speck
in the distance. Crossing a wide field, he was now no longer to be
distinguished from the grazing cattle, and so was lost to the eyes of
the ladies.

By this time he had collected his thoughts a little, and it had grown
plain to him that the last and only thing left for him to do for Letty
was to compel Tom to marry her at once. "My mother will then have half
her own way!" he said to himself bitterly. But, instead of reproaching
himself that he had not drawn the poor girl's heart to his own, and
saved her by letting her know that he loved her, he tried to
congratulate himself on the pride and self-important delay which had
preserved him from yielding his love to one who counted herself of so
little value. He did not reflect that, if the value a woman places upon
herself be the true estimate of her worth, the world is tolerably
provided with utterly inestimable treasures of womankind; yet is it the
meek who shall inherit it; and they who make least of themselves are
those who shall be led up to the dais at last.

"But the wretch shall marry her at once!" he swore. "Her character is
nothing now but a withered flower in the hands of that woman. Even were
she capable of holding her tongue, by this time a score must have seen
them together."

Godfrey hardly knew what he was to gain by riding to Warrender, for how
could he expect to find Tom there? and what could any one do with the
mother? Only, where else could he go first to learn anything about him?
Some hint he might there get, suggesting in what direction to seek
them. And he must be doing something, however useless: inaction at such
a moment would be hell itself!

Arrived at the house--a well-appointed cottage, with out-houses larger
than itself--he gave his horse to a boy to lead up and down, while he
went through the gate and rang the bell in a porch covered with ivy.
The old woman who opened the door said Master Tom was not up yet, but
she would take his message. Returning presently, she asked him to walk
in. He declined the hospitality, and remained in front of the house.

Tom was no co