should not be content with my brother's action, were this not so. I
have been over the whole ground again and again, since sunset.
We--you and I--are powerless. This story is either true or false. If
what we have read really happened, what could arise from our
correspondence with the offender against honor and virtue? It would
but complicate difficulties. If he is unjustly accused, he can prove
it, and put his slanderers to shame without our promptings. Our
interference would be an intimation that he needed our
championship."

"I believe he will clear himself of every stain," returned Mrs.
Sutton earnestly. "This is either a vile plot concocted by some
secret foe, or the Frederic Chilton mentioned here," pushing the
letter away from her on the table, with a gesture of loathing, "is
another person."

"That is very unlikely!"

Mabel leaned her forehead wearily upon her hand, and did not finish
the sentence immediately.

"I will be candid with you, aunt, upon this subject, as I have tried
to be in every other confidence with which I have burdened you.
Frederic Chilton was a student in the law-school, which was also
attended by Winston's correspondent, and at the date specified by
him. I have reason to think there was something
unpleasant--something he wished to conceal from me, and perhaps from
everybody else, connected with his stay there. He referred to it
ambiguously on the last evening of his visit here, as a folly, a
youthful indiscretion. I have the impression, moreover, that a