orgive her."

"But it will be a lie. I have not forgiven her. I loved my mother and
esteemed her as a pure and excellent woman. I was proud of my mother.
How can I forgive her for having destroyed such feelings as those?"

"There should be nothing that a son would not forgive his mother."

"Ah! that is so easily spoken. Men talk of forgiveness when their
anger rankles deepest in their hearts. In the course of years I shall
forgive her. I hope I shall. But to say that I can forgive her now
would be a farce. She has broken my heart, Mrs. Orme."

"And has not she suffered herself? Is not her heart broken?"

"I have been thinking of that all night. I cannot understand how she
should have lived for the last six months. Well; is it time that I
should go to her?"

Mrs. Orme again went up stairs, and after another interval of half
an hour returned to fetch him. She almost regretted that she had
undertaken to bring them together on that morning, thinking that
it might have been better to postpone the interview till the trial
should be over. She had expected that Lucius would have been softer
in his manner. But it was too late for any such thought.

"You will find her dressed now, Mr. Mason," said she; "but I conjure
you, as you hope for mercy yourself, to be merciful to her. She is
your mother, and though she has injured you by her folly, her heart
has been true to you through it all. Go now, and remember that
harshness to any woman is unmanly."

"I can only act as I think best," he replied in that low stern voice
which was habitual to him; and then with slow steps he went up to his
mother's room.

When he entered it she was standing with her eyes fixed upon the door
and her hands clasped together. So she stood till he had closed the
door behind him, and had taken a few steps on towards the centre of
the room. Then she rushed forward, and throwing herself on the ground
before him clasped him round the knees with her arms. "My boy, my
boy!" she said. And then she lay there bathing his feet with her
tears.

"Oh! mother, what is this that she has told me?"

But Lady Mason at the moment spoke no further words. It seemed as
though her heart would have burst with sobs, and when for a moment
she lifted up her face to his, the tears were streaming down her
cheeks. Had it not been for that relief she could not have borne the
sufferings which were heaped upon her.

"Mother, get up," he said. "Let me raise you. It is dreadfu