"Father! the absent are like the dead; they cannot defend
themselves," said Ishmael.

"That is true; and I stand rebuked! And henceforth, whatever I may
think, I will never speak evil of the Countess of Hurstmonceux."

"Go farther yet, dear sir! seek an explanation with her, and my word
on it she will be able to confute the calumnies, or clear up the
suspicious circumstances or whatever it may have been that has
shaken your confidence in her, and kept you apart so long."

"Ishmael it is a subject that I have never broached to the countess,
and one that I could not endure to discuss with her!"

"What, my father? Would you forever condemn her unheard? We do not
treat our worst criminals so!"

"Spare me, my son! for I have spared her!"

"If by sparing her you mean that you have left her alone, you had
better not spared her; you had better sought divorce; then one of
two things would have happened--either she would have disproved the
charges brought against her, or she would have been set free! either
alternative much better than her present condition."

"I could not drag my domestic troubles into a public courtroom,
Ishmael!"

"Not when justice required it, father?--But you are going down into
the neighborhood of Brudenell Hall! You will hear of her from the