ce sat very heavy on him. Whether or no
the law might pronounce Lady Mason to have been guilty, all the world
would know her guilt. When that property should be abandoned, and
her wretched son turned out to earn his bread, it would be well
understood that she had been guilty. And this was the woman, this
midnight forger, whom he had taken to his bosom, and asked to be
his wife! He had asked her, and she had consented, and then he had
proclaimed the triumph of his love to all the world. When he stood
there holding her to his breast he had been proud of her affection.
When Lord Alston had come to him with his caution he had scorned his
old friend and almost driven him from his door. When his grandson had
spoken a word, not to him but to another, he had been full of wrath.
He had let it be known widely that he would feel no shame in showing
her to the world as Lady Orme. And now she was a forger, and a
perjurer, and a thief;--a thief who for long years had lived on the
proceeds of her dexterous theft. And yet was he not under a deep
obligation to her--under the very deepest? Had she not saved him from
a worse disgrace;--saved him at the cost of all that was left to
herself? Was he not still bound to stand by her? And did he not still
love her?

Poor Sir Peregrine! May we not say that it would have been well for
him if the world and all its trouble could have now been ended so
that he might have done with it?

Mrs. Orme was his only counsellor, and though she could not be
brought to agree with him in all his feelings, yet she was of
infinite comfort to him. Had she not shared with him this terrible
secret his mind would have given way beneath the burden. On the day
after Lady Mason's departure from The Cleeve, he sat for an hour in
the library considering what he would do, and then he sent for his
daughter-in-law. If it behoved him to take any step to stay the
trial, he must take it at once. The matter had been pressed on by
each side, and now the days might be counted up to that day on
which the judges would arrive in Alston. That trial would be very
terrible to him in every way. He had promised, during those pleasant
hours of his love and sympathy in which he had felt no doubt as to
his friend's acquittal, that he would stand by her when she was
arraigned. That was now impossible, and though he had not dared to
mention it to Lady Mason, he knew that she would not expect that he
should do so. But to Mrs. Orme he had spo