Indeed you must not heed him.

He is innocent; I, his wife, have come twenty miles, from a bed of weakness and suffering, to tell you so.

He----" But here a hand was laid gently, but firmly on her mouth.

She looked up, met her husband's eyes filled with almost frantic appeal, and giving him a look in return that sank into the heart of every man who beheld it, laid her own hand on his and drew it softly away.
"It is too late, Tom, I must speak.

My father, my own weakness, or your own peremptory commands could not keep me at Belleville when I knew you had been brought here.