"Oh, nonsense!" she said, brushing the bright tears from her blooming face. "You are trying to make this out an act of generosity on our part. It is no such thing. It is a piece of selfishness in us. It will be a very pleasant thing, let me tell you, to go to Europe, and travel about and see all the old historic countries, for a year or so."
"A year or so! Oh, Beatrix! it will not be a year or so, of pleasant travelling! It will be the exile of a lifetime!"
"I don't believe it! I have more faith than that! I believe that
'Ever the right comes uppermost,
And ever is justice done;'
sooner or later, you know! And anyhow Clement and myself have resolved to go abroad with you and Sybil! And you cannot prevent us, Mr. Berners!"
"I am very glad that I cannot; for if I could, Beatrix, I should feel bound by conscience to do it."
"Set your conscience at rest, Mr. Berners! It has nothing to do with other people's deeds!"
"But, dear Beatrix, you are reckoning without your host, Destiny, which now means the report of the medical examiners and the action of the governor upon it! She may not be free to go to Europe."
"I think she will," said Beatrix, cheerfully.
At that moment there was a knock from the inside of the cell.