myself, to think in another soul, to hear my heart beat in another form.
All this I covet in a son. And when all this should smile before me in
his image, shall I be plucked back again into my hell by the
consciousness that a new crime is to be done? No; wade quickly through
the passage of blood, that we may dry our garments and breathe the air
upon the bank where sun shines and flowers bloom!"

"So be it, then," said Varney. "Before the week is out, I must be under
the same roof as St. John. Before the week is out, why not all meet in
the old halls of Laughton?"

"Ay, in the halls of Laughton. On the hearth of our ancestors the deeds
done for our descendants look less dark."

"And first, to prepare the way, Helen should sicken in these fogs of
London, and want change of air."

"Place before me that desk. I will read William Mainwaring's letters
again and again, till from every shadow in the past a voice comes forth,
'The child of your rival, your betrayer, your undoer, stands between the
daylight and your son!'"




CHAPTER XV.

VARIETIES.

Leaving the guilty pair to concert their schemes and indulge their