caught sight of Helen at a distance, bending over a flower-bed in the
neglected garden. He paused, irresolute, a moment. "No," he muttered to
himself, "no; I am fit company only for myself! A long walk into the
fields, and then away with these mists round the Past and Future; the
Present at least is mine!"




CHAPTER V.

THE WEAVERS AND THE WOOF.

"And what," said Varney,--"what, while we are pursuing a fancied clew,
and seeking to provide first a name, and then a fortune for this young
lawyer,--what steps have you really taken to meet the danger that menaces
me,--to secure, if our inquiries fail, an independence for yourself?
Months have elapsed, and you have still shrunk from advancing the great
scheme upon which we built, when the daughter of Susan Mainwaring was
admitted to your hearth."

"Why recall me, in these rare moments when I feel myself human still,--
why recall me back to the nethermost abyss of revenge and crime? Oh, let
me be sure that I have still a son! Even if John Ardworth, with his
gifts and energies, be denied to me, a son, though in rags, I will give
him wealth!--a son, though ignorant as the merest boor, I will pour into
his brain my dark wisdom! A son! a son! my heart swells at the word.
Ah, you sneer! Yes, my heart swells, but not with the mawkish fondness
of a feeble mother. In a son, I shall live again,--transmigrate from
this tortured and horrible life of mine; drink back my youth. In him I