This was agreed to, and with heavy hearts the three men entered a carriage and were driven to the Hamlin house.

As they went up the steps, Grace Sedgwick herself opened the door.  She had been to see her mother, and was just going out.

“Come back, Grace,” said her step-father; “we wish to see you particularly.”

She returned with them, and her step-father told her how they were involved—­in what danger they were, not only of absolute ruin, but of a criminal prosecution, and begged her to see her husband and intercede with him.

“My husband needs no entreaties to do what is right,” said Grace.  “Suppose the case were reversed, what would you grant my husband?”

They all hung their heads.  Grace looked at them and continued:  “You robbed dear, confiding Jack of his fortune, which he had honestly acquired.  You robbed him for the double purpose of making him a beggar, and of breaking his heart, though one of you was his step-father, another the step-father of the woman he loved better than his own life.  It was that which set Jack’s nearest friend to be your Nemesis.  Our troth had just been plighted.  It was like death to part us, but he who is my husband said to me:  ’There must be no scandal, if we can help it, but this wrong must be righted.  I must go to Africa, and if I can work out the dear boy’s deliverance, it must be done.’  And I consented to it.  He moved secretly, but with the force and energy of his nature.  He and the friend who went with him have performed a great work.  They have taken what was unloaded upon Jack as worthless, and converted it into something richer than a little kingdom.  It seems, too, that in the blindness of your avarice, you dared fate itself to make more money out of that wreck, and now you are in the toils.  Suppose my husband had done by you as you have dealt with Jack, and you had him where you now are, what mercy would you show him?”

They were silent.  They had not even self-respect to sustain them.

Grace waited a moment, and then went on:  “But he is of different material.  There is no malice in his nature.  He cares nothing for the triumph which comes through revenge.

“He knew when you dared to sell that stock short, told me of it, and asked what would be right.  I replied that I thought if you would restore to Jack what he had been robbed of, with interest on the money to date, it would be fair; and his answer was that to compel you to do that very thing was what caused him to leave me and go to Africa.

“In that you can get an idea of him.  He had money enough for himself and Jack both; he had no desire for revenge, but he was determined that you should be made to do justice to his friend, whom you had so greatly wronged, and that, if possible, it should be done without any noise.”

“Do you think he would settle that way?” asked Jenvie.

“He has no settlement to make,” said Grace; “but I think he would recommend Jack to settle that way.”