“‘How does Viola bear her trouble?’
“‘Ah! Ed, there is the thing that puzzles me; she acts so strangely in the matter. I can’t understand her. She knows something about this business that she will not tell, though she has promised to explain all when her mind gets more composed.’
“‘Is your confidence in her innocence still unshaken?’
“I was truly sorry I had asked the question when Harry’s eyes met mine.
“‘How can you ask me such a question when you are so well aware of the confidence I have in that dear girl? Don’t you know how I love her? Don’t you know I would as soon suspect an angel from Heaven as Viola?’
“I was not surprised at the extravagant language used, because I was in love myself, and knew how Harry felt. I had not walked more than three steps on the jail floor when I heard Lottie’s well-known voice exclaim:
“‘That’s Eddie,—I know his walk!’ and in a moment her darling head was on my shoulder, while her tears of joy fell on my breast. ‘Eddie, I am so glad you have come back to help us out of our great troubles; we have been looking for you anxiously, and the moment I heard your step I knew whose it was.’
“My heart was so full of joy that I could not speak for some moments.
“‘Come, Ed,’ said Harry, ‘you are making a simpleton of yourself about Lottie; leave her and come with me; we must go to Viola; how is she to-day, sister?’
“‘Improving some little, I think, though she can’t shed tears. If she could only have a good hearty cry, and shed some tears, I believe it would do her a great deal of good. There is a settled look of hopeless despair on her face that frightens me.’