grasp the hand that waived them off and struggled to escape the pressure.
"You are innocent! you are innocent! forgive me that I spoke to you of
repentance as if you had been guilty. I feel you are innocent,--feel it
by my own heart. You turn away. I defy you to say that you are guilty
of what has been laid to your charge, of what has darkened your good
name, of what Mr. Hartopp believed to your prejudice. Look me in the
face and say, 'I am not innocent; I have not been belied."'

Waife remained voiceless, motionless.

The young man, in whose nature lay yet unproved all those grand qualities
of heart, without which never was there a grand orator, a grand
preacher,--qualities which grasp the results of argument, and arrive at
the end of elaborate reasoning by sudden impulse,--here released Waife's
hand, rose to his feet, and, facing Waife, as the old man sat with face
averted, eyes downcast, breast heaving, said loftily,

"Forget that I may soon be the Christian minister whose duty bows his ear
to the lips of Shame and Guilt; whose hand, when it points to Heaven, no
mortal touch can sully; whose sublimest post is by the sinner's side.
Look on me but as man and gentleman. See, I now extend this hand to you.
If, as man and gentleman, you have done that which, could all hearts be
read, all secrets known, human judgment reversed by Divine omniscience,
forbids you to take this hand,--then reject it, go hence: we part! But
if no such act be on your conscience, however you submit to its
imputation,--THEN, in the name of Truth, as man and gentleman to man and
gentleman, I command you to take this right hand, and, in the name of
that Honour which bears no paltering, I forbid you to disobey."

The vagabond rose, like the Dead at the spell of a Magician,--took, as if