Chapter 26

“—I am confident, Ma’am,” continued the letter, “that the young master is bodily well and sound, however ill he may be in mind. And further, I believe, under God, that when he has done with hiding his boyish shame and has come to the clearer understanding of a grown man, he will put away childish things and will return to us at Place-of-Swans;—and a better man, too, for his repentence of folly—to which all men are heir, Ma’am.” It was this letter that rekindled Maddaleen’s courage and set afire imagination and dete…