"He said that he would ride on and bring the young lord back that I
might talk with him, but they have not come."

"No, nor will they, Suzanne, for if they sought they did not wish to
find, or at least the lawyer did not wish it, for he had too much at
stake. Well, things have gone finely with you, seeing that your hands
are clean from sin, and that Ralph still stays at your side."

"The sin of the parents is the sin of the child," she answered, and then
of a sudden she took fire as it were, and fell upon me and beat me with
her tongue; nor could I hold my own before this girl of eighteen, the
truth being that she had right on her side, and I knew it. She told me
that we were wicked plotters who, to pleasure ourselves, had stolen from
Ralph everything except his life; and many other such hard sayings she
threw at me till at last I could bear it no more, but gave her back word
for word. Indeed, it would be difficult to say which had the best of
that quarrel, for if Suzanne's tongue was the nimbler and her words were
winged with truth, I had the weight of experience on my side and the
custom of authority. At last, as she paused breathless, I cried out:

"And for whose sake was all this done, you ungrateful chit, if it was
not for your own?"

"If that was so, which is not altogether true," she answered, "it would
have pleased me better, if, rather than make me a partner in this crime,
and set me as bait to snare Ralph, you had left me to look after my own
welfare."

"What!" I exclaimed, "are you then so shallow hearted that you were