The letter went, and he hoped but scarcely expected an answer by return
of post. It did not come. He said to his heart, "Be still;" and waited.
Another day went by; and another: he gnawed his heart and waited: he
pined, and waited on. The Secret Tribunal, which was all a shallow
legislature had left him, "took it easy." Secret Tribunals always do.
But, while the victim-suitor longed and pined and languished for one
sound from the voice of Justice and Humanity, and while the Secret
Tribunal, not being in prison itself all this time, "took it easy,"
events occurred at Barkington that bade fair to throw open the prison
doors and bring father and son, bride and bridegroom, together again
under one roof.
But at what a price.
CHAPTER XXXV
AT sight of Sampson's placard Mr. Hardie was seized with a tremor that
suspended the razor in mid air: he opened the window, and glared at the
doctor's notice.
At this moment he himself was a picture: not unlike those half cleaned
portraits the picture restorers hang out as specimens of their art.
"Insolent interfering fool," he muttered, and began to walk the room in
agitation.
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