Walter, dear Walter, speak to me'. Are you, my cousin, my playfellow,
--are you the one to blight our hopes, to dash our joys, to bring dread
and terror into a home so lately all peace and sunshine, your own home,
your childhood's home? What have you done? What have you dared to do?
Accuse him! Of what? Murder! Speak, speak. Murder, ha! ha!--murder!
nay, not so! You would not venture to come here, you would not let me
take your hand, you would not look us, your uncle, your more than
sisters, in the face if you could nurse in your heart this lie,--this
black, horrid lie!"

Walter withdrew his hands, and as he turned his face said,--

"Let him prove his innocence. Pray God he do! I am not his accuser,
Madeline. His accusers are the bones of my dead father! Save these,
Heaven alone and the revealing earth are witness against him!"

"Your father!" said Madeline, staggering back,--"my lost uncle! Nay, now
I know indeed what a shadow has appalled us all! Did you know my uncle,
Eugene? Did you ever see Geoffrey Lester?"

"Never, as I believe, so help me God!" said Aram, laying his hand on his
heart. "But this is idle now," as, recollecting himself, he felt that the
case had gone forth from Walter's hands, and that appeal to him had
become vain. "Leave us now, dearest Madeline, my beloved wife that shall
be, that is! I go to disprove these charges. Perhaps I shall return
to-night. Delay not my acquittal, even from doubt,--a boy's doubt. Come,
sirs."

"O Eugene! Eugene!" cried Madeline, throwing herself on her knees
before hint, "do not order me to leave you now, now in the hour of dread!