"Tell me about the links. Are they yours?"
"Yes; I bought them many years ago, when I was young and vain. Marshall saw them, and took a great fancy to them; so I gave him the set--and now"--Mr. Cass clenched his hands--"I fear, if he got his deserts, that they would hang him!"
And, quite overcome, he bowed his head on the table.
[CHAPTER XXI.]
RUTH IS COMFORTED.
Presently Mr. Cass raised his head and looked at Geoffrey with such a woebegone expression that the young man started. It seemed as if the merchant had grown suddenly old; lines appeared on his face which had never been there before; his eyes were sunken, and his shoulders had bowed themselves as though the whole weight of his misery had been placed upon them. The transformation was at once startling and painful.
"Don't take it so much to heart," said Heron. "After all, we may both be wrong about Marshall."
"I hope so. I trust so." was the hoarse reply. "But if he is guilty, what am I to think of myself? I had a suspicion, on the grounds of which I have told you, yet here I have allowed an innocent woman to spend all these years in gaol, when that scoundrel should have been in her place."
"As to that, you could hardly have accused your sister's husband."
"He was not married to her at the time. If I had insisted upon an explanation that night when he came in torn and dirty at yonder window I might have prevented the marriage. I do not think that even the mad love that Inez had for him would have stood such a test. But Mrs. Jenner held her tongue when she should have spoken out, so I had no clue."