The Third Volume by Fergus Hume

WHEN the case has been stated, when the witnesses for and against have given their evidence, when the counsel on both sides have delivered their speeches, it is then customary for the judge to sum up the entire matter for the direction of the jury. In this instance I am the judge, and here is the Larcher affair summed up for the understanding of the public. It has fallen to my share to wind up the story, so here I set down such results as happened from the confession of Mrs. Hilliston.

The immediate result of her death was the marriage of the widower to Mrs. Bezel, which took place, so to speak, when the latter was on her deathbed. She lingered out another two months, and died in the arms of her husband, at peace with all the world. Denis heartily forgave her, and the only bitter drop in her cup was the absence of her child. Yet when Captain Larcher suggested that Jenny should be told the truth, and brought to say good-by to her mother, Mrs. Bezel, with a self-denial for which I hardly gave her credit, refused to permit such a thing. She thought that Jenny would be happier if she was ignorant of the truth, and moreover, Mrs. Bezel shrank from letting her child know how she had lived during these many years. At all events Jenny never learned the truth, and Mrs. Bezel died without seeing her daughter.