"What can they ask of me of such weight?
Save him." she added, a sudden gleam of hope irradiating her pallid face, like a sunbeam upon snow?
"Did your Grace say _I_ could save him?
Oh, speak, in mercy!" "Calm this emotion then, Marie, and thou shalt know all.

It was for this I called thee hither.

Sit thee on the settle at my feet, and listen to me patiently, if thou canst.

'Tis a harsh word to use to grief such as thine, my child," she added, caressingly, as she laid her hand on Marie's drooping head; "and I fear will only nerve thee for a still harsher trial.

Believe me, I would have spared thee if I could; but all I can do is to bid thee choose the lesser of the two evils.