"You think too harshly of it, Chester, and perhaps I spoke too strongly. There is no villainy in the matter. Few young men would have had strength of moral purpose sufficient to resist such a temptation, and give up half a valuable property." "But that is exactly what he has done," broke in Mr Chester, quickly. "We're forgetting all that. He has voluntarily disposed of half. It is sheer nonsense, Pitt. How can you account for such an act?" "Well, it has gone to his sister, which is a different business from losing it altogether. But I own to you that my own convictions point to a certain pressure having been brought to bear. I suspect that the secret was scented, and that this was the price of silence,--in fact, I may say that I put a question or two to young Lee, which proved pretty decidedly that he was acquainted with the contents of the letter. No other theory would explain his manner of receiving the gift, for he absolutely expressed no gratitude whatever." It was evident that Mr Pitt's quiet persistence was producing the effect it usually does produce upon violent people. The Squire looked like a man who has received a blow. He walked on silently for some time, then stopping at a gate, said,-- "I think I'll go across to Sanders's farm; there's a little business I want to speak to him about. You can't miss Mannering's house if you go straight forward." He turned away as he spoke, but had not gone many paces before he strode back. "The boy's father did not know a word of the matter, sir; of that I'll stake my existence," he said positively, and went off again without giving Mr Pitt time to answer. As the lawyer walked thoughtfully on towards the Red House, he acknowledged to himself that this conviction of the Squire's was probably well grounded. Even to the eyes of a suspicious man, and Mr Pitt was partly from nature and partly from profession suspicious, the Vicar had carried that about him which made it very difficult to doubt his honour. It was quite possible that the contents of the letter had been withheld from him. But the other affair had resolved itself almost into certainty. When Mr Tregennas read to him the words he had just written, Mr Pitt had felt that it was putting human virtue to too severe a test; he half smiled at himself now for having been such a fool as to cherish a hope that the young man would be generous to Margaret Hare's child at his own expense. CHAPTER SIXTEEN. "A very pitiful lady, very young, Exceeding rich in human sympathies." Rosetti's _Dante_. ------------------------------------------------------------------------