If innocent, it would create a prejudice against
him; if guilty, they would wish to punish him. She resolved upon laying
the matter before Lord Arleigh, and seeing what he thought of it.
He listened very patiently, examined the affair, and then told her that
he believed she had been robbed.
"What shall I do?" she asked, looking at him earnestly.
"I know what you ought to do, Philippa. You ought to punish him."
"But he has a wife, Norman, and innocent little children; in exposing
him I shall punish them, and they are innocent."
"That is one of the strangest of universal laws to me," said Lord
Arleigh--"why the innocent always do, and always must, suffer for the
guilty; it is one of the mysteries I shall never understand. Common
sense tells me that you ought to expose this man--that he ought to be
punished for what he has done. Yet, if you do, his wife and children
will be dragged down into an abyss of misery. Suppose you make a
compromise of matters and lecture him well."
He was half smiling as he spoke, but she took every word in serious
earnest.
"Philippa," he continued, "why do you not marry? A husband would save
you all this trouble; he would attend to your affairs, and shield you
from annoyances of this kind.
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