And does not his hasty resignation of a comfortable home, a promising living, evince his guilt more strongly than every other proof?
Why did he refuse to defend his conduct?
Was it not likely such a crime as this upon his conscience would occasion that restlessness we all perceived, that extreme haste to depart?
he would not stay to see his victim die, or be charged with a child of sin.

There was a mystery in his sudden departure, but there is none now; it is all too clear." "_It is false!_" burst with startling almost overwhelming power from the lips of Emmeline, as she sprung with the strength of agony from her seat, and stood with the suddenness of a vision, before her parents, a bright hectic spot burning on either cheek, rendering her usually mild eyes painfully brilliant.

She had sat as if spell-bound, drinking in every word.

She _knew_ the tale was false, but yet each word had fallen like brands of heated iron on her already scorching brain; that they should dare to breathe such a tale against him, whose fair fame she knew was unstained, link his pure name with infamy; and her father, too, believed it.

She did not scream, though there was that within which longed for such relief.