"Very well," said the younger man, after a little hesitation. "I'm not quite sure we are doing our duty, but, on the principle that one ought always to give the prisoner the benefit of the doubt, as I am in some little doubt myself, let Sinclair have the benefit of it, and I will agree with you that nothing further be done."
"That being settled, I think it will be best for you, Mr. Gaze, to have the briefest possible letter written to Mr. Barton, thanking him for his communication, the contents of which have been duly noted, but that no action is contemplated thereon."
The lawyer having taken his leave, a letter was sent to Mrs. Sinclair acquainting her with the decision at which they had arrived, and expressing the pleasure they felt at having been able so far to fall in with her wishes.
When this letter reached Railton Hall, the joy it occasioned none but a mother in similar circumstances can fully realise.
The transition from fear to hope, and again from hope to despair, had been terribly trying to a constitution never strong, and already much enfeebled by the trials it had been called upon to endure.
The tidings which had so unexpectedly reached her, that the son, so long mourned as dead (under circumstances which seemed to leave no room for reasonable doubt of its correctness), was still alive, had filled her with a new-born hope of yet once again looking upon those well-remembered features,—features which bore the unmistakable image of her dead husband,—giving rise to ideals and imaginings which the depths had apparently overwhelmed and shut out from all possibility of realisation.
But such hopes and such visions had been shattered and dispelled as quickly as they had arisen by her visit to Broadstone, and the possible consequences which might result from the intelligence which was there being awaited from the North-West. Woman-like, she had anticipated the worst, and had even allowed her dire apprehensions to manifest their existence in the letter she had written Ralph. She advised—almost entreated—him to escape from Ranger's whilst there was time, lest the officers of justice should be set upon his track, before such a course became impossible.
Once again, however, was hope rekindled in her breast, when the letter arrived which conveyed the welcome intelligence that the firm had abandoned all thoughts of having her son arrested.
Again the reaction from the gloom of despair to the joys of hope was almost more than the poor mother could endure. Scientists tell us that joy never kills. It may be true. At all events its effects are not always as salutary as one could desire, and in Mrs. Sinclair's case it was some time before she could command sufficient strength of will, or obtain the control of her nervous system, to render her capable of dictating a letter to Jennie for her brother, to inform him of the gratifying news.
Her anxiety now was, lest, acting upon the advice given in her previous letter, he should have put into practice the course she had thought it so desirable to urge upon him. It was possible a telegram might reach him in time to arrest his departure; she could scarcely hope to forestall her letter, which had probably already been received and its advice acted upon.