'Well, my dear, there is one comfort for us. You may resolve on marrying him. But a man charged with a crime--out on bail--cannot marry any girl. And he will be charged, and the evidence is very strong.' 'No doubt. As good as proved--as good as proved. Poor George! Who never had ten pounds in the world until he was made a partner----' 'True. And there we have the real motive. Seek the motive, Sir Samuel says, and we shall find the criminal. Here you have the reason of the secret partnership with Athelstan. Poverty is the tempter--Athelstan is the suggested.' Elsie shook her head impatiently. 'Mr. Dering was to give you away. Who will now? Athelstan? How can we--Sir Samuel and I--assist at a wedding where the bridegroom lies under such a charge?--by one so near to us as Mr. Dering? How can your mother be present? Oh, Elsie, think!' Elsie shook her head again, with greater impatience. 'Think what a fate you may be dragging upon yourself! Think of possible children with such a brand upon them!' 'I think only of an honourable and an innocent man.' 'I have just come from my mother, Elsie. She says positively that if the charge is brought, the wedding must be put off until the man is cleared. And for the moment she does not feel strong enough to meet him. You can receive him here if you please. And she desires that there may be no disputes or arguments about it.' 'It is truly wonderful!' Elsie walked to the open window and gasped as if choking. 'Wonderful!' she repeated. 'The same fate--in the same manner--threatens George that fell upon Athelstan. And it finds us as ready to believe in the charge and to cast him out. Now, Hilda, go to my mother and tell her that though the whole world should call George--my George--a villain, I will marry him. Tell her that though I should have to take him from the prison door, I will marry him. Because, you see, all things are not possible. This thing is impossible.' 'We shall have trouble with Elsie,' Lady Dering told her mother. 'Call her soft and yielding? My dear, no mule was ever more stubborn. She will marry her convict, she says, even at the prison door.' CHAPTER XVII WAS HE IN RAGS? Stubborn as a mule. Yes--it is the way with some girls: man is soft as wax compared with woman: man concedes, compromises, gives way, submits: woman has her own way--when that way is the right way she becomes a pearl above price.