36 TURNS OF FORTUNE.

gery ; that he never would confess that such
was the case; that it should be his business to
disprove the charge; that he hoped she did not
suppose he yielded to the plaintiff, who was re-
solved to bring the matter into a court of jus-
tice. He would only ask her one little question;
had she ever seen her father counterfeit differ-
ent hands?- Yes, she said, she had; he could
counterfeit, copy, any hand he ever saw, so that
the real writer could not tell the counterfeit from
the original. Mr. Cramp made no direct ob-
servation on this, except to beg that she would
not mention that ‘ melancholy circumstance ”’
to any one else.

Sarah Bond told him she should not feel
bound to make this talent of her father’s a crime,
by twisting into a secret what he used to do as
an amusement. Mr. Cramp urged mildly the
folly of this, when she had a defence to make ;
but she stood all the more firmly upon what she
fearlessly considered the dignity of right and
truth ; at the same time assuring him, she would
to the last contest that right, not so much for
her own sake, or the sake of one who was dear
to her beyond all power of expression, but for
the sake of him in whose place she stood, and
whose honour she would preserve with her life.
Mr. Cramp was a good, shrewd man of business.
He considered all Miss Bond’s energy, on the
subject of her father’s honour, as romance,
though he could not help believing she was in