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HUMPHRY.

Did you say wine, Sir, which you dislike so much ?

YOUNG ARDEN.

Never mind, never mind; give me a good draught, though there were arsenic in it.

MRS. ARDEN.

Oh! thou art not well. Run, Madaline, and fetch him some cordial. [Exeunt Madaline and Humphry different ways.] O what is the matter with thee? Where hast thou been? Thou wentest out to seek deliverance for us, and the rebuff of some cruel-hearted man sends thee back broken-hearted and hopeless to me and to thy miserable father.

YOUNG ARDEN (his eyes lighting up keenly).

No, mother; I do not so return. I have kept my word with you; my father's deliverance is earned.

MRS. ARDEN.

And dost thou tell me so with a joy so wild and so terrible?

YOUNG ARDEN.

Hush, hush, hush! Speak not to me; look not at me; tell it to no one; be as if you knew it not. Say in your own heart, "He shall live" but lock it up there unuttered.