“Thank Heaven! every hour of that swoon is a respite from anguish! Oh, that while she is in it her spirit may pass peacefully away to Heaven! Who is with her?”
“Mrs. Barton and my wife. They are doing all that they possibly can for her relief, and believe me Mr. Montrose, every care and comfort shall be given her that her unhappy condition and our painful duty will permit. I would do as much, sir, for the poorest and most friendless stranger that might be committed to my charge, to say nothing of the daughter of the noblest man I ever saw and the best friend I ever had,” said the warden, earnestly.
“I am sure you would. And—I hope you do not believe her guilty?”
The warden winced. Since the disclosures of the trial his faith in the innocence of Eudora was much shaken. He would gladly have evaded the inquiry, but as the looks of Malcolm were still eagerly questioning him, he was obliged to answer:
“I do not know what to believe, sir. As the daughter of her father, I should say she could not be, sir; but then her mother was an East-Indian, and no one knows what venom, might have mixed with the good old Leaton blood in crossing it with that breed.”
“That is enough! You cannot help believing what all the world, except a very few, believe. Oh, Heaven! my poor Eudora, that even your dead mother’s race should rise up in evidence against you! But we must be patient; aye, patient until the very judgment-day, when all shall be made clear! Would to God that it were to-morrow! Where can the sheriff be found this evening, that I may go to him at once to get that order you spoke of?”
“He is in the village now, staying at the Leaton Arms. But, Mr. Montrose, you cannot in any case see Miss Leaton before to-morrow morning, for the hour for closing has already arrived, and it is against the rules to open to anyone.”
Deep grief is never irritable, else Malcolm might have uttered an imprecation on the rules, instead of asking, with quiet despair:
“How early in the morning may I be admitted?”
“With the sheriff’s order, at any time after nine.”