"Be of good courage, mother!" said Mother Bunch. "Agricola is innocent, and will not remain long in prison."
"But now I think of it," resumed Dagobert's wife, "to go to the pawnbroker's will make you lose much time, my poor girl."
"I can make up that in the night, Madame Frances; I could not sleep, knowing you in such trouble. Work will amuse me."
"Yes, but the candles—"
"Never mind, I am a little beforehand with my work," said the poor girl, telling a falsehood.
"Kiss me, at least," said Frances, with moist eyes, "for you are the very best creature in the world." So saying, she hastened cut of the room.
Rose and Blanche were left alone with Mother Bunch; at length had arrived the moment for which they had waited with so much impatience. Dagobert's wife proceeded to St. Merely Church, where her confessor was expecting to see her.
CHAPTER XLVIII:
THE CONFESSIONAL
Nothing could be more gloomy than the appearance of St. Merely Church, on this dark and snowy winter's day. Frances stopped a moment beneath the porch, to behold a lugubrious spectacle.