Unjust but womanlike, her love was stronger than her judgment.

"Well," said he, after eyeing me thoughtfully, "you listen as if you did
not rightly comprehend what I have been saying!"

I was indeed stunned by his communication. Could it be, I thought, with
suppressed fear, that the shadowy figure which had haunted my bed-chamber
and had visited me in dreams was the same wronged Alice? Had she arisen
from her grave beneath the granite of the church-yard to warn me? Or are
the dead jealous of their rights? Do they cling to their earthly love? I
queried. But when he spoke I shook off these thoughts that were rising
like mist to obscure my judgment, and answered, "_I_ am. I am listening;
proceed."

"Agnes, through your influence Richard has hoped to obtain possession of
Herbert and control over his fortune. He has thought to entrap you as he
did Alice, and through his power over you has calculated to carry out the
project of his prolific brain."

Till this moment I had listened silently to his strange recital, but I
could not brook this insinuation. The story, to my mind, did not appear
clear. How could Richard expect to obtain, through my agency, possession
of a son whom he had never acknowledged? Tis true I remembered him to
have said that he feared I would miss my pupil very much. He had asked
playfully what would Herbert do without me, but he had not suggested
taking the child away with us, and therefore Mr. Bristed's charge
appeared to my mind unfounded, and I told him so.

"Ah, my child!" he replied, "you know not the devising power of this man.
He has an agent here in this place, in the shape of old Crisp, the