I can never think that God had not forgiven him, for he was grieved because of his sin when I saw him the night he got away.

And in all things else he was so good! Oh, how good he was!" Phebe's tears were falling fast, and her words were choked with sobs.
But Felicita's face was hidden against her neck, and she could not see if she was weeping.
"Everybody is talking of him in Riversborough," she went on, "and now they all say how good he always was, and how unlikely it is that he was guilty.

They will forget it soon.

Those who remember him will think kindly of him, and be grieved for him.

But oh, I would give worlds for him to have lived and made amends! If he could only have proved that he had repented! If he could only have outlived it all, and made everybody know that he was really a good man, one whom God had delivered out of sin!" "It was impossible!" murmured Felicita.
"No, not impossible!" she cried earnestly; "it was not an unpardonable sin.