“Widow?”
“Well, yes; what else is she? Husband transported for life. The man is socially dead.”
“You do not know Mrs Hallam,” said Bayle gravely.
“Do you think she believes in him still?”
“With her whole heart. He is to her the injured man, a victim to a legal error, and she lives in the belief which she has taught her child, that some day her martyr’s reputation will be cleared, and that he will take his place among his fellow-men once more.”
“I wish I could think so too, for her sake,” said Sir Gordon, after a pause.
“Amen!”
“But, Bayle, you—you don’t ever think there was any mistake?”
“It is always painful to me to speak of a man whom I never could esteem.”
“But to me, man—to me.”