'He has altered his mind,' said the lawyer to himself as he was driven back to the Hamworth station. 'He also now believes her to be guilty.' As to his own belief, Mr. Furnival held no argument within his own breast, but we may say that he was no longer perplexed by much doubt upon the matter.
And then the morning came for Lady Mason's departure. Sir Peregrine had not seen her since she had left him in the library after her confession, although, as may be remembered, he had undertaken to do so. But he had not then known how Mrs. Orme might act when she heard the story. As matters had turned out Mrs. Orme had taken upon herself the care of their guest, and all intercourse between Lady Mason and Sir Peregrine had passed through his daughter-in-law. But now, on this morning, he declared that he would go to her upstairs in Mrs. Orme's room, and himself hand her down through the hall into the carriage. Against this Lady Mason had expostulated, but in vain.
'It will be better so, dear,' Mrs. Orme had said. 'It will teach the servants and people to think that he still respects and esteems you.'
'But he does not!' said she, speaking almost sharply. 'How would it be possible? Ah, me—respect and esteem are gone from me for ever!'
'No, not for ever,' replied Mrs. Orme. 'You have much to bear, but no evil lasts for ever.'
'Will not sin last for ever;—sin such as mine?'
'Not if you repent;—repent and make such restitution as is possible. Lady Mason, say that you have repented. Tell me that you have asked Him to pardon you!' And then, as had been so often the case during these last days, Lady Mason sat silent, with hard, fixed eyes, with her hands clasped, and her lips compressed. Never as yet had Mrs. Orme induced her to say that she had asked for pardon at the cost of telling her son that the property which he called his own had been procured for him by his mother's fraud. That punishment, and that only, was too heavy for her neck to bear. Her acquittal in the law court would be as nothing to her if it must be followed by an avowal of her guilt to her own son!
Sir Peregrine did come upstairs and handed her down through the hall as he had proposed. When he came into the room she did not look at him, but stood leaning against the table, with her eyes fixed upon the ground.
'I hope you find yourself better,' he said, as he put out his hand to her. She did not even attempt to make a reply, but allowed him just to touch her fingers.
'Perhaps I had better not come down,' said Mrs. Orme. 'It will be easier to say good-bye here.'
