of comfort was handed to him. And he remembered as he spoke, the
bloodshot eyes of the miscreant who had dared to tell him that the
wife of his bosom might be legally torn from him by the hands of
another man. "You won't desert me?" said Sir Thomas; meaning by
that, to bind his friend to an obligation that, at any rate, his
wife should not be taken from him.

"No," said Mr. Prendergast, "I will not desert you; certainly not
that; certainly not that." Just then it was in his heart to promise
almost anything that he was asked. Who could have refused such
solace as this to a man so terribly overburthened?

But there was another point of view at which Mr. Prendergast had
looked from the commencement, but at which he could not get Sir
Thomas to look at all. It certainly was necessary that the whole
truth in this matter should be made known and declared openly. This
fair inheritance must go to the right owner and not to the wrong.
Though the affliction on Sir Thomas was very heavy, and would be
equally so on all the family, he would not on that account, for the
sake of saving him and them from that affliction, be justified in
robbing another person of what was legally and actually that other
person's property. It was a matter of astonishment to Mr.
Prendergast that a conscientious man, as Sir Thomas certainly was,
should have been able to look at the matter in any other light; that
he should ever have brought himself to have dealings in the matter
with Mr. Mollett. Justice in the case was clear, and the truth must
be declared. But then they must take good care to find out
absolutely what the truth was. Having heard all that Sir Thomas had
to say, and having sifted all that he did hear, Mr. Prendergast
thoroughly believed, in his heart of hearts, that that wretched