"It would have been a terrible sin!" said the boy, with a slight shudder. "But God prevented you from committing it."
"But I'm a thief still, and a coward, for I sneaked away in the night, fearing to meet Sophie's eyes, and afraid to tell the professor what I was and what I had done. I left all the burden of my sins to be borne by women and an infirm old man, and I am going, with a stolen fortune, to forget I ever had a heart or a soul."
"Are you going, and do you think you can forget?" asked the boy, with a smile.
"Don't you give me up yet?" returned Bressant, trembling. "What is left for me?"
"Why, every thing is left for you!" exclaimed the boy, his smile brightening in his eyes. "You seem to forget that you haven't gone off with any stolen money yet! You must begin at the next station, and devote your whole life—no less will answer—to redeeming yourself. Only be sure not to delay, and not to hesitate."
Bressant looked at his companion, and thought there was something divine and unearthly almost in his manner, and especially in the light that came from his gray eyes.
"As for the stolen money," the boy continued, "all you have to do about that is, to let it alone; it is safe, and will be cared for. But you must go straight to the Parsonage. Your marriage-day is Sunday; be sure you are there by noon. It may be you will not find Sophie there; but she will leave a gift for you, at any rate, and you must be in time to claim it."
"But how can I ask Sophie's forgiveness, and the professor, and Cornelia?"
"Trust wholly in Sophie," returned the other, with an accent of loving reproof, "never doubt her love and forgiveness. You must make your peace with the professor as best you can; but perhaps he has found that to forgive in himself which will enable him to be more charitable to you. As for Cornelia, she and you must recompense each other for the evil you have mutually wrought upon each other."
"How recompense each other?" questioned Bressant, in surprise; "it was not a high nor a true love that we felt for each other; it was a love of the passions and senses."