'Your business must be urgent, Mr. Cross, that drives you out through such a night.'
'It is urgent, sir. Is Miss Hettie in a condition to be seen?'
'She is not, except by those with whom she feels perfectly at rest.'
'I must see her, Mr. Rutherford, if such a thing is possible. I have done her great injustice, and I wish to make all the atonement in my power. As you value the future peace of an unhappy man, I beg you, sir, to allow me but a moment's interview.'
'It cannot be, Mr. Cross; your presence in her chamber would, in all probability, throw her again into the same horrible condition from which she has but just recovered; and a relapse would be fatal.'
Cross looked away from Mr. Rutherford, and fixed his eye on the door. He seemed in an agony, for occasionally a tremor shook his whole frame, and Mr. Rutherford thought he saw him wipe away a tear. For some moments neither spoke. At length turning, and with a beseeching look addressing Mr. Rutherford,
'Will you allow me, sir, to send a line to her; perhaps she may wish to see me.'
'I will, sir; but I am not at all sure that you will be permitted to see her, even if she consents.'
He wrote a few lines, and handing it to Mr. Rutherford—
'If she refuses to see me after she has read that, so be it; but I will not then be to blame for the consequences which may follow.'