I hope, more easily, delicately, and expeditiously than by any other
means, to achieve our object. He evidently can assist us, and, as
evidently, Waife has not told him that he is flying from Sophy and
friends, but from enemies and persecutors. For Merle, who is impervious
to bribes, and who at first was churlish and rude, became softened as my
honest affection for the fugitive grew clear to him, and still more when
I told him how wretched Sophy was at her grandfather's disappearance, and
that she might fret herself into a decline. And we parted with this
promise on his side, that if I would bring "down to him either Sophy
herself (which is out of the question) or a line from her, which, in
referring to any circumstances while under his roof that could only be
known to her and himself, should convince him that the letter was from
her hand, assuring him that it was for Waife's benefit and at her prayer
that he should bestir himself in search for her grandfather, and that he
might implicitly trust to me, he would do all he could to help us. So
far, then, so good. But I have now more to say, and that is in reference
to Sophy herself. While we are tracking her grandfather, the peril to
her is not lessened. Never was that peril thoroughly brought before my
eyes until I had heard actually from the police agent the dreadful
character and associations of the man who can claim her in a fathers
name. Waife, it is true, had told you that his son was profligate,
spendthrift, lawless--sought her, not from natural affection, but as an
instrument to be used, roughly and coarsely, for the purpose of extorting
money from Mr. Darrell. But this stops far short of the terrible
reality. Imagine the effect on her nerves, so depressed as they now are,
nay, on her very life, should this audacious miscreant force himself here
and say, 'Come with me, you are my child.' And are we quite sure that
out of some refining ncbleness of conscience she might not imagine it her
duty to obey, and to follow him? The more abject and friendless his
condition, the more she might deem it her duty to be by his side. I have