ar myself, but that it is
equally impossible for me to confide to mortal being a single plea in
defence if I am innocent, in extenuation if I am guilty. And saying
this, and entreating you to hold it more merciful to condemn than to
question me,--for question is torture,--I cannot reject your pity; but
it would be mockery to offer me respect!"

"What! not respect the fortitude which calumny cannot crush? Would that
fortitude be possible if you were not calm in the knowledge that
no false witnesses can mislead the Eternal Judge? Respect you!
yes,--because I have seen you happy in despite of men, and therefore I
know that the cloud around you is not the frown of Heaven."

"Oh," cried Waife, the tears rolling down his cheeks, "and not an hour
ago I was jesting at human friendship, venting graceless spleen on my
fellow-men! And now--now--ah, sir! Providence is so kind to me! And,"
said he, brushing away his tears, as the old arch smile began to play
round the corner of his mouth, "and kind to me in the very quarter in
which unkindness had so sorely smitten me. True, you directed towards me
the woman who took from me my grandchild, who destroyed me in the esteem
of good Mr. Hartopp. Well, you see, I have my sweet Sophy back again; we
are in the home of all others I most longed for; and that woman, yes, I
can, at least, thus far, confide to you my secrets, so that you may not
blame yourself for sending her to Gatesboro',--that very woman knows of
my shelter; furnished me with the very reference necessary to obtain it;
has freed my grandchild from a loathsome bondage, which I could not have
legally resisted; and should new persecutions chase us will watch and
warn and help us. And if you ask me how this change in her was effected;
how, when we had abandoned all hope of green fields, and deemed that
only in the crowd of a city we could escape those who pursued us when
discovered there, though I fancied myself an adept in disguise, and the
child and the dog were never seen out of the four garret walls in which
I hid them,--if you ask me, I say, to explain how that very woman was
suddenly converted from a remorseless foe into a saving guardian, I can
only answer 'By no wit, no device, no persuasive art of mine. Providence
softened her heart, and made it kind, just at a moment when no other
agency on earth could have rescued us from--from--"

"Say no more: I guess! the paper this woman showed me was a legal form
authorizing your