'It was the thought of it, I am persuaded. I consult it so frequently, and like to look at it so much, that now it is fixed in my mind; and I see it as distinctly, as if it were really in my hand, whenever I am going to do wrong.'
'And does it stop you short, as it did this afternoon?' said William.
'Unless I am very earnest indeed, too earnest to attend to its admonitions.'
'What did it say to-night, when you looked at it?' asked William.
Frank repeated what the parson had said, after William left the room; the questions Mr. Reed asked, with his own answers; and told William that he was trying to come to a decision, what he ought to do.
'O you won't tell, will you? It is an evil spell that prompts you to betray a friend. Besides, what good can it do? If it could restore to the poor dead creature that one hour, I would tell myself instantly.'
'I have decided not to tell,' said Frank, 'without your consent.'
'Don't ask me to give that; it is impossible.'
'Why, you said just now, you would tell yourself, to restore that lost hour. This I know cannot be done; but something as valuable, which you have lost yourself, may be restored, by confessing the truth.'
'What is that?'