"But what good does it all do?" continued Lewis. "I may believe--but unless you can get other people to believe too, what is the use of it?" "The use of it!" Anne's lightened heart and shining eye bore witness to its use. "James Aytoun believes it also," she said. "Yes, James Aytoun believes it; but neither James nor you, Anne, will be satisfied with believing it yourselves. I don't see what we're to do. People judge by evidence--all the evidence is against him, and the only thing in his favor is an impression--well, I will go further--a kind of certainty--one can't give any reason for it, it is the merest indefinite, impalpable thing in the world. There's just a conviction that he is not guilty--there's nothing to support it." "Well," said Anne, cheerfully; "but the evidence to support it must be got, Lewis. It is foolish to think that a work like this could be done in so short a time, and with so small an expenditure of labor and patience. Your time is otherwise engaged--so is James Aytoun's--he has his business to manage--you, your estate. I have nothing. I am and have been all my life, a very useless person; let me have the satisfaction of being of some service for once in my life." "Why, Anne," exclaimed Lewis, "are you in your senses? what in the world could you do? Do you think I could ever listen to such a thing? Nonsense, nonsense--mind your own affairs like a good girl, and do not meddle with what is quite out of your sphere." Anne smiled, but with some pain--another person might have laughed frankly at the condescending superiority of the younger brother. It hurt her a little. "Lewis, I have even more interest in this matter than you--many hopes there may be, and are, in your life. I have few. This of Norman's return is the greatest of all--and what concerns my brother cannot be out of my sphere." "No--to wish for it--or to dream about it, or even to scheme for it," said Lewis, "That's all very well; but for anything else--why, what could you do, Anne--what could any woman do? You know nothing of the laws of evidence--you don't know even how to make inquiries. You might go and spend money, and get the thing talked about, and written of in local newspapers. Content yourself, Anne, and leave it in our hands: you could do nothing more." Alice Aytoun could have done nothing more. Anne Ross felt very certain that she had no gift for spending money and getting herself talked about--that it might be possible for her to do something more. So she said: "You do not convince me, Lewis. To discover truth, one does not need to be familiar with laws of evidence. I am not a lawyer, and could not go as a lawyer would; but I am Norman's only sister, Lewis, and, as such, might find some fragments of truth favorable to him. I do not ask you to decide immediately--think of it, and then give me your sanction to my enterprise."