all
parts of the world? It was known all through the country that night
that Lady Mason was acquitted; and before the next night it was as
well known that she had acknowledged her guilt by giving up the
property.

Little could be said as to the trial while Peregrine remained in the
room with his mother and his grandfather; but this he had the tact to
perceive, and soon left them together. "I shall see you, mother, up
stairs before you go to bed," he said as he sauntered out.

"But you must not keep her up," said his grandfather. "Remember all
that she has gone through." With this injunction he went off, and as
he sat alone in his mother's room he tried to come to some resolution
as to Noningsby. He knew he had no ground for hope;--no chance, as
he would have called it. And if so, would it not be better that
he should take himself off? Nevertheless he would go to Noningsby
once more. He would not be such a coward but that he would wish her
good-bye before he went, and hear the end of it all from her own
lips.

When he had left the room Lady Mason's last message was given to Sir
Peregrine. "Poor soul, poor soul!" he said, as Mrs. Orme began her
story. "Her son knows it all then now."

"I told him last night,--with her consent; so that he should not go
into the court to-day. It would have been very bad, you know, if they
had--found her guilty."

"Yes, yes; very bad--very bad indeed. Poor creature! And so you told
him. How did he bear it?"

"On the whole, well. At first he would not believe me."

"As for me, I could not have done it. I could not have told him."

"Yes, sir, you would;--you would, if it had been required of you."

"I think it would have killed me. But a woman can do things for which
a man's courage would never be sufficient. And he bore it manfully."

"He was very stern."

"Yes;--and he will be stern. Poor soul!--I pity her from my very
heart. But he will not desert her; he will do his duty by her."

"I am sure he will. In that respect he is a good young man."

"Yes, my dear. He is one of those who seem by nature created to bear
adversity. No trouble or sorrow would I think crush him. But had
prosperity come to him, it would have made him odious to all around
him. You were not present when they met?"

"No--I thought it better to leave them."

"Yes, yes. And he will give up the place at once."

"To-morrow he will do so. In that at any rate he has true spirit.
To-morrow early they will go t