ould not now bid her desert Lady Mason: for was it not true that the
woman's wickedness was known to them two, through her resolve not to
injure those who had befriended her? But all this made the matter
worse rather than better to him. It is all very well to say, "No
surrender;" but when the load placed upon the back is too heavy to be
borne, the back must break or bend beneath it.

His load was too heavy to be borne, and therefore he said to himself
that he would put it down. He would not again see Lord Alston and
the old friends of former days. He would attend no more at the
magistrates' bench, but would send his grandson out into his place.
For the few days that remained to him in this world, he might be well
contented to abandon the turmoils and troubles of life. "It will not
be for long," he said to himself over and over again. And then he
would sit in his arm-chair for hours, intending to turn his mind
to such solemn thoughts as might befit a dying man. But, as he sat
there, he would still think of Lady Mason. He would remember her as
she had leaned against his breast on that day that he kissed her; and
then he would remember her as she was when she spoke those horrid
words to him--"Yes; I did it; at night, when I was alone." And this
was the woman whom he had loved! This was the woman whom he still
loved,--if all the truth might be confessed.

His grandson, though he read much of his grandfather's mind, had
failed to read it all. He did not know how often Sir Peregrine
repeated to himself those words, "No Surrender," or how gallantly
he strove to live up to them. Lands and money and seats of honour
he would surrender, as a man surrenders his tools when he has done
his work; but his tone of feeling and his principle he would not
surrender, though the maintenance of them should crush him with their
weight. The woman had been very vile, desperately false, wicked
beyond belief, with premeditated villany, for years and years;--and
this was the woman whom he had wished to make the bosom companion of
his latter days!

"Samson is happy now, I suppose, that he has got the axe in his
hand," he said to his grandson.

"Pretty well for that, sir, I think."

"That man will cut down every tree about the place, if you'll let
him." And in that way he strove to talk about the affairs of the
property.

CHAPTER LX

WHAT REBEKAH DID FOR HER SON

Every day Mrs. Orme went up to Orley Farm and sat for two hours
with