His emotion was sufficiently genuine to give more than usual earnestness to his voice and gesture, as he poured out every word that spoke sympathy and soothing.

For a long time Lucretia did not seem to hear him; at last her face softened,--the ice broke.
"Motherless, friendless, lone, alone forever, undone, undone!" she murmured.

Her head sank upon the shoulder of her fearful counsellor, unconscious of its resting-place, and she burst into tears,--tears which perhaps saved her reason or her life..