THEY ARE OFF.—THEY ARE MARRIED. 143

“They are impostors,” interrupted Williams, in a
low, but firm voice, “Arch impostors ; and don’t
you go and let your good-nature believe every artful
lie that is told you. They are impostors, I tell you;
I have seen him, and I am mistaken if he be not off
pretty handily.”

“ And do you actually pretend not to believe it ?”
cried Reynolds, growing quite warm. “TI appeal to
your conscience, Williams, whether, in the face of
heaven, you dare to disown them. They are not
impostors, and that youknow! How dare you, with
your plenty,—or even if you had to slave for your
daily bread it would be the same thing,—how dare you
cast your father into poverty, perhaps into crime, and
what is ten thousand times worse, cast that lovely
creature, your own sister, who is pure as the very
stars of heaven, friendless upon the world? I will
stand between you and your pride, Williams, if pride
it be, or your false shame, or want of moral courage,
or whatever it is, and force you to do them right!
They are your own flesh and blood, and as you hope
for the blessing of God on your own life and under-
takings, be just to them.”

Williams heard all in gloomy silence, and then
inquired where he had seen “ these people.”

Reynolds related what had occurred between
Marianne and himself, and showed how the peculiar
circumstances of his own early life had rendered him,
as it were, innocently a party in the misunderstand-
ing ; he told how pleased his aunt Kendricks had
been with her, and how they had kept her at their
house for one, if not two, nights,

A peculiar smile passed over Williams’s counte-
nance, which Reynolds could not understand. “ What