34/43 The word of comfort came in good time, for the shameful weight of the situation was crushing Dorothy. Mr.Harley was not borne upon by the shame of the thing; that did not depress him any more than the knowledge that he was guiltless of wrong upheld him. A man of finer nature would have been strengthened by his innocence. To such a man his self-respect would have been important; while he retained that support he could have summoned up a fortitude to bear the worst that lay in Storri's hands. But Mr.Harley was no such one of fineness, upon whom he would have looked down as a visionary and a sentimentalist. |