"I'm sure of it. If the General Gaol is held next week, we'll be married the week after."
"But, Alick?"
"Yes."
"Your father and sisters, will they not always cast it up at you that your wife has been tried for...."
"Let them! If they do the Isle of Man will be dead to me for ever. We'll go abroad—to America perhaps—and leave everything and everybody behind us."
Bessie was crying once more, and Alick, to conceal his own tears, was going off with great bustle.
"Good-bye! I'll be here again to-morrow. And oh, what do you think, Bess? Great news! Stowell has been made Deemster. So if the good Lord in Heaven will only keep that damned old Taubman in bed a little longer with his rheumatism, Stowell will be on the bench and you'll have a fair trial at all events. Good-bye!"
For the next half-hour Bessie sobbed with joy. Tell the truth and destroy Alick's faith in her? Never! Never in this world!