I should be blabbing out his disgrace, and
destroying perhaps his livelihood. On the other hand, if he should still
be really a rogue, a robber, perhaps dangerous, ought I--ought I--in
short--you are a clergyman and a fine scholar, sir-what ought I to do?"

"My dear Mr. Hartopp, do not vex yourself with this very honourable
dilemma of conscience. Let me only find my poor old friend, my
benefactor I may call him, and I hope to persuade him, if not to return
to the home that waits him, at least to be my guest, or put himself
under my care. Do you know the name of the widow with whom he lodges?"

"Yes--Halse; and I know the town well enough to conduct you, if not to
the house itself, still to its immediate neighbourhood. Pray allow me to
accompany you; I should like it very much--for, though you may not think
it, from the light way I have been talking of Chapman, I never was so
interested in any man, never so charmed by any man; and it has often
haunted me at night, thinking that I behaved too harshly to him, and
that he was about on the wide world, an outcast, deprived of his
little girl, whom he had trusted to me. And I should have run after him
yesterday, or called on him this morning, and said, 'Let me serve you,'
if it had not been for the severity with which he and his son were
spoken of, and I myself rebuked for mentioning their very names, by
a man whose opinion I, and indeed all the country, must hold in the
highest respect--a man of the finest honour, the weightiest character--I
mean Guy Darrell, the great Darrell."

George Morley sighed. "I believe Darrell knows nothing of the elder
Losely, and is prejudiced against him by the misdeeds of the younger, to
whose care you (and I cannot blame you, for I also was instrumental
to the same transfer which might have proved calamitously fatal)
surrendered the poor motherless girl."

"She is not with her grandfather now'! She lives still, I hope! She was
very delicate."

"She lives--she is safe. Ha--take care!"

These last words were spoken as a horseman, riding fast along the road
towards the bridge that was now close at hand, came, without warning or
heed, so close upon our two pedestrians, that George Morley had but just
time to pluck Hartopp aside from the horse's hoofs.

"An impudent, careless, ruffianly fellow, indeed!" said the mild
Hartopp, indignantly, as he brushed from his sleeve the splash of dirt
which the horseman bequeathed to it. "He must be drunk!