Next day Ralph arrived at Fairbridge. He acknowledged silently the greetings of the knot of people gathered at the station. The situation was not free from embarrassment for them; their joy at his complete acquittal would have found expression in some tumultuous welcome but for the thought of his brother, by the chance exposure of whose treachery that acquittal had been secured.
Martin stood at the gate of the Manor House bareheaded, and Ralph put out both his hands.
"So I have come home safe, Martin,"
"The Lord be praised for it!" the butler said; "the Lord be praised for it! But, oh! poor Master Melville!" and the tears broke out and poured down the old fellow's withered cheeks.
"Poor Melville!" echoed Ralph. "Well, we can't forget it, Martin, but we can forgive him—you and I. Surely if anybody can forgive him it is you and I—because he was——"
He could not finish; the sight of the faithful old servant sobbing as he bent over his hands was too much for him, and the words died away into a groan.
"God bless you, you dear old Martin! Who can doubt of God when such kind hearts as yours are beating round them? Come, you must take me to missy."
So Martin led the way to the library, where Gwendolen stood alone, very pale and nervous, but very sweet. He opened the door and tried to say Ralph's name, but it would not come, and with his hands before his face he ran away and left them alone together.
* * * * *
That that part of the world which had inclined to believe in Ralph's guilt hastened to shower congratulations upon him goes without saying, but the recipient of them displayed something more than his wonted taciturnity in his acknowledgment of them. Almost more than anything else, he resented the fact that anybody who knew him could suppose him capable of such rank ingratitude as to kill his only friend and benefactor. He tried to explain his brother's life by some theory of criminal insanity, some lack of moral sense, which made him not wholly responsible for all his actions; but for the lack of charity displayed by so many of the average men and women of the world he had nothing but savage detestation.