The revelation had made him, comparatively, an
innocent and free man. But a shock had been given to his whole being
which unfitted him for the common uses of society.

After all that had passed through his mind he could not bear to think of
joining his sister or husband. The keen feelings of a nature, not in
its full development wicked or dishonorable, had been startled into
life, when he saw into what a gulf he had almost plunged. He saw the sin
and the wrong he had done in its true light, and not only repented of
it, but abhorred it from the very depths of his soul. He longed to make
atonement, and would have given ten years from his life for a chance by
which he could have sacrificed himself to any one that poor murdered
lady had loved.

These feelings rose up like a barrier between him and his sister. Her
influence over his youth had been so powerful that his own better nature
never might have asserted itself but for the tragedy which followed his
first plunge into deception and wrong-doing. He loved this beautiful
young woman yet, as few brothers of any age or class ever did; but the
shock of that tragedy was on him, and his impulse was to flee from her
and the man for whose sake all this trouble had come.

Hepworth Closs was not the first youth whose life has opened with evil
thoughts and evil deeds, from which his manhood shrank appalled.

The unformed intellect and quick passions of youth have wrecked many a
noble soul, by the sin of an hour or a day, beyond the redemption of a
toiling and regretful after-life. The man who does redeem himself must
have a powerful nature, which will force its strength to be recognized,
and make its regeneration felt. But to the sins of youth much should be
forgiven, which, in the mature man, justice might utterly condemn.

Hepworth Closs arose from that fainting fit humbled and grateful. That
moment his resolve was taken. He would not share the benefits which
might come to him through his sister's marriage, nor in anything partake
of a reward for the evil he had, in mercy, been saved from. The world
was before him. He would work his way into prosperity, if possible; if
not, bear his fate like a man who had deserved suffering, and could
endure it.

One act of restitution was in his power. The property of the unfortunate
person, whom he knew as Lady Hope, had fallen into his possession, for
the house had been purchased in his name, and, in like manner, her
deposits had been