The unfortunate young man shuddered. It was so dreadful to think of this now, and to think that the cause of all his trouble remembered it too, as the one distinct thing when so much was blank. And to see the untroubled curiosity in their faces, so unexpectant of the thunderbolt which was about to fall! ‘The reason he has been out of sight so long is--that he has been in prison for forgery for fourteen years. He came out about a month since, and I found him the first night, but without knowing who he was. He is a convict, and has been in prison for fourteen years.’ Mrs. Egerton uttered a low cry as if somebody had struck her. As for Elly, she did not understand, but looked at him again with growing wonder, as if she knew only from his face, not from what he said. ‘It is easily explained, isn’t it?’ he said, with a strange smile; ‘not much trouble, that is how it is. I knew nothing, no more than you did, or I should be inexcusable. Now you have heard it, take her away. Oh, Mrs. Egerton, now you know--spare me, and take her away.’ ‘Jack! God bless you, my poor boy. Oh, Jack, I never dreamt of this. God help you, my poor boy.’ ‘Yes, I hope He will: for nobody else can. It is like that in the prayer-book--“Because there is none other that fighteth for us.” Take her away. She can’t understand. Oh, Mrs. Egerton, for God’s sake, take her away.’ ‘Yes, Jack; yes, I will; that is, I will if I can. Elly, do you hear him? He does not want us; not now, not at this dreadful moment. Oh, my poor, heart-broken boy! Oh, God help you, my poor Jack!’ Mrs. Egerton got up, as if she intended to go away; but then she stopped and held out her hands to him, and finally drew him to her, and gave him a kiss upon his pale cheek, bursting out into crying as she drew him, resisting, into her arms. ‘Oh, my poor boy! oh, my poor boy! how are you to bear it?’ she cried. Oh, if he could but have put his head on her motherly bosom, and cried like a child, as even a man may do, like one whom his mother comforteth! But John, with Elly on the other side of him, resisted, and would not do this. He said, hoarsely: ‘I can’t bear it--I must bear it: only take her away.’ ‘Elly--Elly! do you hear? We make it worse for him. You and I must not make anything worse for him. Elly, let us go away.’ ‘It seems as if I had nothing to do with all this,’ said Elly, with trembling lips. ‘Yet I thought it was me you loved, and not anyone else. I thought----’ ‘Oh, Elly!’ Mrs. Egerton cried, weeping, ‘don’t you see you are torturing him? Oh, I wish I knew what to do! Elly, don’t you see you are breaking his heart? Come away, and leave him to himself. It is perhaps the kindest thing we can do.’ Elly did not move. She did not cry, though her lips quivered. She stood up straight by his side, as if nothing would ever alter her position.