e right head, instead of on the head of the
nearest. You say she was harassed and out of spirits. I wish you were at
home; Amy would comfort her and soften them.'

'We hope to go back as soon as you are in travelling condition. If you
will come home with us, you will be at hand when Mr. Edmonstone is ready
to forgive, as I am sure he soon will be. No one ever was so glad to
forget his displeasure.'

'Yes; it will be over by the time I meet him, for she will have borne it
all. There is the worst! But I will not put off the writing, as soon
as I have the power. Every day the concealment continues is a further
offence.'

'And present suffering is an especial earnest and hope of forgiveness,'
said Guy. 'I have no doubt that much may be done to make Mr. Edmonstone
think well of it.'

'If any suffering of mine would spare hers!' sighed Philip. 'You cannot
estimate the difficulties in our way. You know nothing of poverty,--the
bar it is to everything; almost a positive offence in itself!'

'This is only tiring yourself with talking,' said Guy, perceiving how
Philip's bodily weakness was making him fall into a desponding strain.
'You must make haste to get well, and come home with us, and I think we
shall find it no such bad case after all. There's Amy's fortune to begin
with, only waiting for such an occasion. No, I can't have you answer;
you have talked, quite long enough.'

Philip was in a state of feebleness that made him willing to avoid the
trouble of thinking, by simply believing what he was told, 'that it was
no bad case.' He was relieved by having confessed, though to the person
whom, a few weeks back, he would have thought the last to whom he could
have made such a communication, over whom he had striven to assume
superiority, and therefore before whom he could have least borne to
humble himself--nay, whose own love he had lately traversed with an
arrogance that was rendered positively absurd by this conduct of his
own. Nevertheless, he had not shrunk from the confession. His had been
real repentance, so far as he perceived his faults; and he would have
scorned to avail himself of the certainty of Guy's silence on what he
had said at the time of his extreme danger. He had resolved to speak,
and had found neither an accuser nor a judge, not even one
consciously returning good for evil, but a friend with honest, simple,
straightforward kindness, doing the best for him in his power, and
dreading nothing so much as