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 'There should be nothing that a son would not forgive his mother.'

'Ah! that is so easily spoken. Men talk of forgiveness when their anger rankles deepest in their hearts. In the course of years I shall forgive her. I hope I shall. But to say that I can forgive her now would be a farce. She has broken my heart, Mrs. Orme.'

'And has not she suffered herself? Is not her heart broken?'

'I have been thinking of that all night. I cannot understand how she should have lived for the last six months. Well; is it time that I should go to her?'

Mrs. Orme again went up stairs, and after another interval of half an hour returned to fetch him. She almost regretted that she had undertaken to bring them together on that morning, thinking that it might have been better to postpone the interview till the trial should be over. She had expected that Lucius would have been softer in his manner. But it was too late for any such thought.

'You will find her dressed now, Mr. Mason,' said she; 'but I conjure you, as you hope for mercy yourself, to be merciful to her. She is your mother, and though she has injured you by her folly, her heart has been true to you through it all. Go now, and remember that harshness to any woman is unmanly.'

'I can only act as I think best,' he replied in that low stern voice which was habitual to him; and then with slow steps he went up to his mother's room.

When he entered it she was standing with her eyes fixed upon the door and her hands clasped together. So she stood till he had closed the door behind him, and had taken a few steps on towards the centre of the room. Then she rushed forward, and throwing herself on the ground before him clasped him round the knees with her arms. 'My boy, my boy!' she said. And then she lay there bathing his feet with her tears.

'Oh! mother, what is this that she has told me?'

But Lady Mason at the moment spoke no further words. It seemed as though her heart would have burst with sobs, and when for a moment she lifted up her face to his, the tears were streaming down her cheeks. Had it not been for that relief she could not have borne the sufferings which were heaped upon her.

'Mother, get up,' he said. 'Let me raise you. It is dreadful that you should lie there. Mother, let me lift you.' But she still clung to his knees, grovelling on the ground before him. 'Lucius, Lucius,' she said, and she then sank away from him as though the strength of her muscles would no longer allow her to cling to him. She sank away from him and lay along the ground hiding her face upon the floor.

'Mother,' he said, taking her gently by the arm as he knelt at her side, 'if you will rise I will speak to you.'