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CHAPTER XI.

"The court awards it, and the law doth give it."

Remarkable Pettibone, who had forgotten the wound received by her pride, in the contemplation of the ease and comforts of her situation, and who still retained her station in the family of Judge Temple, was despatched to the humble dwelling which Richard styled "the Rectory," in attendance on Louisa, who was soon consigned to the arms of her father.

In the mean time, Marmaduke and his daughter were closeted for more than an hour, nor shall we invade the sanctuary of parental love, by relating the conversation for that period. At its expiration, when the curtain rises on the reader, the Judge is seen walking up and down the apartment, with a tender melancholy in his air, softening the manly expression of his features, and his child reclining on a settee, with a flushed cheek, and her dark eyes seeming to float in crystals.

"It was a timely rescue! it was, indeed, a timely rescue, my child!" cried the Judge. "Then thou didst not desert thy friend, my noble Bess?"

"I believe I may as well take the credit of for-