"Sir, you do not mean it! and as for Mrs. Rocke, she is a good woman I feel it my duty to uphold!" "Good! ugh! ugh! ugh! I'll command myself! I'll not give way again! Good! ah, lad, it is quite plain to me now that you are an innocent dupe. Tell me now, for instance, do you know anything of that woman's life before she came to reside at Staunton?" "Nothing; but from what I've seen of her since I'm sure she always was good." "Did she never mention her former life at all?" "Never; but, mind, I hold to my faith in her, and would stake my salvation on her integrity," said Herbert, warmly. "Then you'd lose it, lad, that's all; but I have an explanation to make to you, Herbert. You must give me a minute or two of your company alone, in the library, before tea." And so saying, Major Warfield arose and led the way across the hall to the library, that was immediately back of the back drawing-room. Throwing himself into a leathern chair beside the writing-table, he motioned for his companion to take the one on the opposite side. A low fire smoldering on the hearth before them so dimly lighted the room that the young man arose again to pull the bell rope; but the other interrupted with: "No, you need not ring for lights, Herbert! my story is one that should be told in the dark. Listen, lad; but drop your eyes the while." "I am all attention, sir!" "Herbert, the poet says that-- "'At thirty man suspects himself a fool, Knows it at forty and reforms his rule.' "But, boy, at the ripe age of forty-five, I succeeded in achieving the most sublime folly of my life. I should have taken a degree in madness and been raised to a professor's chair in some college of lunacy! Herbert, at the age of forty-five I fell in love with and married a girl of sixteen out of a log cabin! merely, forsooth, because she had a pearly skin like the leaf of the white japonica, soft gray eyes like a timid fawn's and a voice like a cooing turtle dove's! because those delicate cheeks flushed and those soft eyes fell when I spoke to her, and the cooing voice trembled when she replied! because the delicate face brightened when I came and faded when I turned away! because-- "'She wept with delight when I gave her a smile, And trembled with fear at my frown,' etc.;