"Yes, and I sat up all that night, and I shall sit up every night when it comes round, year by year, until he returns home again."
"Then you have changed your mind?" said Warren.
"I have forgiven him, but he must prove his innocence, and I am beginning to believe he will. Something tells me he will," he said, as he looked at Warren in a way that made him feel very uncomfortable, and yet he knew nothing had been found out—at present.
"Ulick was hardly the sort of man one would have expected to get into such a mess," said Warren.
"You are right; that is what I cannot understand," replied the Squire, thinking at the same time Warren Courtly was a much more likely man to do so.
"Irene told me you thought I was foolish to accept ten thousand for the Holme Farm," said Warren.
"And I still think so. Why did you sell it?"
"I had to, I owed a lot of money."
"Betting?"
"Mostly, but I am out of the mire now, and intend to keep so," he replied.