Ned himself had listened in silence. He sighed heavily when the
doctor had finished.
"Abijah will be a great comfort," he said quietly, "a wonderful
comfort; but as to my poor mother, it will of course be a trial.
Still, no wonder that, when she heard me say those words when I
went out, she thinks that I did it. However, I suppose that it is
part of my punishment."
"Have you thought anything of your future plans, Ned?" Mr. Porson
asked after they had driven in silence for some distance.
"Yes, I have been thinking a good deal," Ned replied, "all the time
I was shut up and had nothing else to do. I did not believe that
they would find me guilty, and of course I had to settle what I
should do afterward. If it was only myself I think I should go away
and take another name; but in that case there would be no chance
of my ever clearing myself, and for father's sake and for the sake
of Charlie and Lucy I must not throw away a chance of that. It would
be awfully against them all their lives if people could say of them
that their brother was the fellow who murdered their stepfather.
Perhaps they will always say so now; still it is evidently my duty
to stay, if it were only on the chance of clearing up the mystery.
"In the next place I feel that I ought to stay for the sake of
money matters. I don't think, in the present state of things, with
the Luddites burning mills and threatening masters, any one would
give anything like its real value for the mill now.
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