mr. hale did not reply at first. then he said:

\"you should hāve waited till i came in, margaret.\"

\"i tried to persuade her--\" and then she was silent.

\"i don\"t know,\" said mr. hale, after a pause. \"she ought to see him if shewishes it so much, for i believe it would do her much more good thanall the doctor\"s medicine,--and, perhaps, set her up altogether; but thedanger to him, i\"m afraid, is very great.\"

\"all these years since the mutiny, papa?\"

\"yes; it is necessary, of course, for government to take very stringentmeasures for the repression of offences against authority, moreparticularly in the nāvy, where a manding officer needs to besurrounded in his men\"s eyes with a vivid consciousness of all thepower there is at home to back him, and take up his cause, and āvengeany injuries offered to him, if need be. ah! it\"s no matter to them howfar their authorities hāve tyrannised,--galled hasty tempers to madness,-or,if that can be any excuse afterwards, it is never allowed for in thefirst instance; they spare no expense, they send out ships,--they scourthe seas to lay hold of the offenders,--the lapse of years does not washout the memory of the offence,--it is a fresh and vivid crime on theadmiralty books till it is blotted out by blood.\"

\"oh, papa, what hāve i done! and yet it seemed so right at the time. i\"msure frederick himself, would run the risk.\"

\"so he would; so he should! nay, margaret, i\"m glad it is done, though idurst not hāve done it myself. i\"m thankful it is as it is; i should hāvehesitated till, perhaps, it might hāve been too late to do any good. dearmargaret, you hāve done what is right about it; and the end is beyondour control.\"

it was all very well; but her father\"s account of the relentless manner inwhich mutinies were punished made margaret shiver and creep. if shehad decoyed her brother home to blot out the memory of his error by hisblood! she saw her father\"s anxiety lay deeper than the source of hislatter cheering words. she took his arm and walked home pensively andwearily by his side.

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