\"it is all right, dear. i\"ll go and make him as fortable as i can, and doyou attend to your mother. only, if you can e in and make a third inthe study, i shall be glad.\"

\"oh, yes--thank you.\" but as mr. hale was leāving the room, she ranafter him:

\"papa--you must not wonder at what he says: he\"s an----i mean he doesnot believe in much of what we do.\"

\"oh dear! a drunken infidel weāver!\" said mr. hale to himself, indismay. but to margaret he only said, \"if your mother goes to sleep, besure you e directly.\"

margaret went into her mother\"s room. mrs. hale lifted herself up froma doze.

\"when did you write to frederick, margaret? yesterday, or the daybefore?\"

\"yesterday, mamma.\"

\"yesterday. and the letter went?\"

\"yes. i took it myself\"

\"oh, margaret, i\"m so afraid of his ing! if he should be recognised!

if he should be taken! if he should be executed, after all these years thathe has kept away and lived in safety! i keep falling asleep and dreamingthat he is caught and being tried.\"

\"oh, mamma, don\"t be afraid. there will be some risk no doubt; but wewill lessen it as much as ever we can. and it is so little! now, if wewere at helstone, there would be twenty--a hundred times as much.

there, everybody would remember him and if there was a strangerknown to be in the house, they would be sure to guess it was frederick;while here, nobody knows or cares for us enough to notice what we do.

dixon will keep the door like a dragon--won\"t you, dixon--while he ishere?\"

\"they\"ll be clever if they e in past me!\" said dixon, showing herteeth at the bare idea.

\"and he need not go out, except in the dusk, poor fellow!\"

\"poor fellow!\" echoed mrs. hale. \"but i almost wish you had not written.