I want to be assured that you will do nothing
to hinder her recovery. May I depend on your making no second attempt to
see her--except with my sanction and approval?"
"After what she has suffered, and after what I have suffered," I said,
"you may rely on me."
"I have your promise?"
"You have my promise."
Mr. Bruff looked relieved. He put down his hat, and drew his chair
nearer to mine.
"That's settled!" he said. "Now, about the future--your future, I mean.
To my mind, the result of the extraordinary turn which the matter has
now taken is briefly this. In the first place, we are sure that Rachel
has told you the whole truth, as plainly as words can tell it. In the
second place--though we know that there must be some dreadful mistake
somewhere--we can hardly blame her for believing you to be guilty, on
the evidence of her own senses; backed, as that evidence has been, by
circumstances which appear, on the face of them, to tell dead against
you."
There I interposed. "I don't blame Rachel," I said. "I only regret that
she could not prevail on herself to speak more plainly to me at the
time."
"You might as well regret that Rachel is not somebody else," rejoined
Mr.
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