"I'm sorry I mentioned it at all, since it distresses you," returned Winifred; "but, as I knew my father intended to propose to you, if poor Jack should be respited—"
"If he should be respited?" repeated Mrs. Sheppard, with startling eagerness. "Does your father doubt it? Speak! tell me!"
Winifred made no answer.
"Your hesitation convinces me he does," replied the widow. "Is Thames returned from London?"
"Not yet," replied the other; "but I expect him every minute. My father's chief fear, I must tell you, is from the baneful influence of Jonathan Wild."
"That fiend is ever in my path," exclaimed Mrs. Sheppard, with a look, the wildness of which greatly alarmed her companion. "I cannot scare him thence."
"Hark!" cried Winifred, "Thames is arrived. I hear the sound of his horse's feet in the yard. Now you will learn the result."
"Heaven support me!" cried Mrs. Sheppard, faintly.
"Breathe at this phial," said Winifred.
Shortly afterwards,—it seemed an age to the anxious mother,—Mr. Wood entered the room, followed by Thames. The latter looked very pale, either from the effect of his wound, which was not yet entirely healed, or from suppressed emotion,—partly, perhaps, from both causes,—and wore his left arm in a sling.