‘I told no one,’ answered Barbara, ‘because I promised him that I would not betray him, and even now I would have said nothing about it but that you tell me that you know it as well as I. No,’ she added, after having drawn a long breath, ‘no, not even after all the provocation he has given would I betray him.’ Mr. Jordan looked as one dazed. ‘Where then are these clothes—this convict suit?’ ‘In the garret. I hid them there.’ ‘Let me see them. I cannot yet understand.’ Barbara left the room, and shortly returned with the bundle. She unfolded it, and spread the garments before her father. He rubbed his eyes, pressed his knuckles against his temples, and stared at them with astonishment. ‘So, then, it was he—Jasper Babb—who stole Eve’s money?’ ‘Yes, papa.’ ‘And he was taken and locked up for doing so—where?’ ‘In Prince’s Town prison.’ ‘And he escaped?’ ‘Yes, papa. As I was on my way to Ashburton, I passed through Prince’s Town, and thus heard of it.’ ‘Barbara! why did you keep this secret from me? If I had known it, I would have run and taken the news myself to the police and the warders, and have had him recaptured whilst he was ill in bed, unable to escape.’ It was now Barbara’s turn to express surprise. ‘But, dear papa, what do you mean? You have told me yourself that you knew all about Mr. Jasper.’ ‘I knew nothing of this. My God! How thick the black spots are, and how big and pointed!’ ‘Papa dear, what do you mean? You assured me you knew everything.’ ‘I knew nothing of this. I had not the least suspicion.’ ‘But, papa’—Barbara was sick with terror—’you told me that this stood as a bar between him and Eve?’ ‘No—Barbara. I said that there was a barrier, but not this. Of this I was ignorant.’ The room swam round with Barbara. She uttered a faint cry, and put the back of her clenched hands against her mouth to choke another rising cry. ‘I have betrayed him! My God! My God! What have I done?’ CHAPTER XXXI. CALLED TO ACCOUNT. ‘GO,’ said Mr. Jordan, ‘bring Eve to me.’ Barbara obeyed mechanically. She had betrayed Jasper. Her father would not spare him. The granite walls of Prince’s Town prison rose before her, in the midst of a waste as bald as any in Greenland or Siberia. She called her sister, bade her go into her father’s room, and then, standing in the hall, placed her elbows on the window ledge, and rested her brow and eyes in her palms. She was consigning Jasper back to that miserable jail. She was incensed against him. She knew that he was unworthy of her regard, that he had forfeited all right to her consideration, and yet—she pitied him. She could not bring herself to believe that he was utterly bad; to send him again to prison was to ensure his complete ruin. ‘Eve,’ said Mr. Jordan, when his youngest daughter came timidly into the room, ‘tell me, whom did you meet on the Raven Rock?’ The girl hung her head and made no reply. She stood as a culprit before a judge, conscious that his case is hopeless.