"And then we 'll get up a provocation of some kind or other. Of course, the thing will cost money,--that can't be helped; but we'll try to escape imprisonment." "Send Cary to me,--send my daughter here!" said I, for I was growing weak. "But had n't you better let us concert--" "Send Cary to me, my Lord, and leave me!" and I said the words in a way that he could n't misunderstand. He had scarcely quitted the room when Cary entered it. "There, dearest papa," said she, caressingly, "don't fret. It's a mere trifle; and if he was n't a wretchedly cowardly creature, he 'd think nothing of it!" "Are you in the conspiracy against me too?" cried I; "have _you_ also joined the enemy?" "That I haven't," said she, putting an arm round my neck; "and I know well, if the fellow had not grossly outraged, or perhaps menaced you, you 'd never have done it! I 'm certain of that, pappy!" Egad, Tom, I don't like to own it, but the truth is--I burst out a-crying; that's what all this bleeding and lowering has brought me to, that I have n't the nerve of a kitten! It was the inability to rebut all this balderdash--to show that it was a lie from beginning to end--confounded me; and when I saw my poor Cary, that never believed ill of me before, that, no matter what I said or did, always took my part, and, if she could n't defend at least excused me,--when, I say, I saw that _she_ gave in to this infernal delusion, I just felt as if my heart was going to break, and I sincerely wished it might. I tried very hard to summon strength to set her right; I suppose that a drowning man never struggled harder to reach a plank than did I to grasp one thought well and vigorously; but to no use. My ideas danced about like the phantoms in a magic lantern, and none would remain long enough to be recognized. "I think I 'll take a sleep, my dear," said I. "The very wisest thing you could do, pappy," said she, closing the shutters noiselessly, and sitting down in her old place beside my bed.