s, however humble--my right to stand between her and yourself
would cease." But a lawyer's experience is less credulous than a lover's
hope. And to Darrell's judgment it was wholly improbable that any honest
parents, however humble, should have yielded their child to a knave
like Jasper, while it was so probable that his own persuasion was well
founded, and that she was Jasper's daughter, though not Matilda's.

The winter evening had closed, George and Darrell were conversing in
the library; the theme, of course, was Waife; and Darrell listened with
vivid interest to George's graphic accounts of the old man's gentle
playful humour--with its vague desultory undercurrents of poetic fancy
or subtle wisdom. But when George turned to speak of Sophy's endearing,
lovely nature, and, though cautiously, to intimate an appeal on her
behalf to Darrell's sense of duty, or susceptibility to kindly
emotions, the proud man's brow be came knit, and his stately air evinced
displeasure. Fortunately, just at a moment when further words might
have led to a permanent coldness between men so disposed to esteem each
other, they heard the sound of wheels on the frosty ground--the shrill
bell at the porch-door.

CHAPTER V.

THE VAGABOND RECEIVED IN THE MANOR-HOUSE AT FAWLEY.

Very lamely, very feebly, declining Lionel's arm, and leaning heavily on
his crutch-stick, Waife crossed the threshold of the Manor-house. George
sprang forward to welcome him. The old man looked on the preacher's face
with a kind of wandering uncertainty in his eye, and George saw that
his cheek was very much flushed. He limped on through the hall, still
leaning on his staff, George and Lionel at either side. A pace or two,
and there stood Darrell! Did he, the host, not spring forward to offer
an arm, to extend a hand? No; such greeting in Darrell would have been
but vulgar courtesy. As the old man's eye rested on him, the superb
gentleman bowed low--bowed as we bow to kings!

They entered the library. Darrell made a sign to George and Lionel. They
understood the sign, and left visitor and host alone.

Lionel drew George into the quaint old dining-hall. "I am very uneasy
about our dear friend," he said, in agitated accents. "I fear that
I have had too little consideration for his years and his sensitive
nature, and that, what with the excitement of the conversation that
passed between us and the fatigue of the journey, his nerves have
broken down. We were n