Providence has raised a witness on my behalf in that very Mr. Hartopp,
who judged me (and any one else might have done the same) too bad to be
fit company for you! And that is why I am congratulated; and, oh, Sophy,
though I have borne it as Heaven does enable us to bear what of ourselves
we could not, and though one learns to shrug a patient shoulder under the
obloquy which may be heaped on us by that crowd of mere strangers to us
and to each other, which is called 'the WORLD,' yet to slink out of sight
from a friend, as one more to be shunned than a foe--to take like a
coward the lashings of Scorn--to wince, one raw sore, from the kindness
of Pity--to feel that in life the sole end of each shift and contrivance
is to slip the view--hallo, into a grave without epitaph, by paths as
stealthy and sly as the poor hunted fox, when his last chance--and sole
one--is, by winding and doubling, to run under the earth; to know that it
would be an ungrateful imposture to take chair at the board--at the
hearth, of the man who, unknowing your secret, says, 'Friend, be social';
accepting not a crust that one does not pay for, lest one feel a swindler
to the kind fellow-creature whose equal we must not be!--all this--all
this, Sophy, did at times chafe and gall more than I ought to have let it
do, considering that there was ONE who saw it all, and would--Don't cry,
Sophy; it is all over now."

"Not cry! Oh, it does me so much good."

"All over now! I am under this roof--without shame or scruple; and if
Guy Darrell, knowing all my past, has proved my innocence in the eyes of
those whom alone I cared for, I feel as if I had the right to stand
before any crowd of men erect and shameless--a Man once more with Men!
Oh, darling! let me but see thy old happy smile again! The happy smiles
of the young are the sunshine of the old. Be patient--be firm;
Providence is so very kind, Sophy."