"You are quite right there. It certainly is a most important point for our consideration. But, coming back to the point from which we started, the motive of the man who has written to us, which is most unworthy, and one I don’t at all like to encourage; that it is a matter which we have long ago wiped out of our books; for the sake of his dead father’s memory, and of the mother whom we have promised to consider as much as possible, I am decidedly of opinion we can very well let the transaction remain as at present, and take no steps to have the man arrested." "Very well," said the younger man, after a little hesitation. "I’m not quite sure we are doing our duty, but, on the principle that one ought always to give the prisoner the benefit of the doubt, as I am in some little doubt myself, let Sinclair have the benefit of it, and I will agree with you that nothing further be done." "That being settled, I think it will be best for you, Mr. Gaze, to have the briefest possible letter written to Mr. Barton, thanking him for his communication, the contents of which have been duly noted, but that no action is contemplated thereon." The lawyer having taken his leave, a letter was sent to Mrs. Sinclair acquainting her with the decision at which they had arrived, and expressing the pleasure they felt at having been able so far to fall in with her wishes. When this letter reached Railton Hall, the joy it occasioned none but a mother in similar circumstances can fully realise. The transition from fear to hope, and again from hope to despair, had been terribly trying to a constitution never strong, and already much enfeebled by the trials it had been called upon to endure. The tidings which had so unexpectedly reached her, that the son, so long mourned as dead (under circumstances which seemed to leave no room for reasonable doubt of its correctness), was still alive, had filled her with a new-born hope of yet once again looking upon those well-remembered features,—features which bore the unmistakable image of her dead husband,—giving rise to ideals and imaginings which the depths had apparently overwhelmed and shut out from all possibility of realisation. But such hopes and such visions had been shattered and dispelled as quickly as they had arisen by her visit to Broadstone, and the possible consequences which might result from the intelligence which was there being awaited from the North-West. Woman-like, she had anticipated the worst, and had even allowed her dire apprehensions to manifest their existence in the letter she had written Ralph. She advised—almost entreated—him to escape from Ranger’s whilst there was time, lest the officers of justice should be set upon his track, before such a course became impossible. Once again, however, was hope rekindled in her breast, when the letter arrived which conveyed the welcome intelligence that the firm had abandoned all thoughts of having her son arrested.