"That's he," cried Richard, eagerly.
"Mr. Carlyle will contrive that you shall see him," she continued, stooping as if to tie her shoe. "Should it prove to be the same, perhaps nothing can be done--immediately done--toward clearing you, but it shall be a great point ascertained. Are you sure you should know him again?"
"Sure! That I should know /him/?" uttered Richard Hare. "Should I know my own father? Should I know you? And are you not engraven on my heart in letters of blood, as is he? How and when am I to see him, Barbara?"
"I can tell you nothing till I have seen Mr. Carlyle. Be here to-morrow, as soon as ever the dusk will permit you. Perhaps Mr. Carlyle will contrive to bring him here. If--"
The window was thrown open, and the stentorian voice of Justice Hare was heard from it.
"Barbara, are you wandering about there to take cold? Come in! Come in, I say!"
"Oh, Richard, I am so sorry!" she lingered to whisper. "But papa is sure to be out to-morrow evening; he would not stay in two evenings running. Good-night, dear."
There must be no delay now, and the next day Barbara, braving comments, appeared once more at the office of Mr. Carlyle. Terribly did the rules of contrary seem in action just then. Mr. Carlyle was not in, and the clerks did not know when to expect him; he was gone out for some hours, they believed.
(Editor:library)