Oliver!  His own lips seemed to re-echo the word.  Then like a lion baited beyond his patience the judge lifted his head and faced them all with a fiery intensity which for the moment made him a terrible figure to contemplate.

“Let no one utter that name to me here!” shot from his lips in tones of unspeakable menace and power.  “Spare me that name, or the curse of my ruined life be upon you.  I can bear no more to-day.”

Thrilled by his aspect, cowering under his denunciation, emphasised as it was by a terrifying gesture, the people, pressing closest about him, drew back and left the passage open to the gate.  He took it with a bound, and would have entered but that from the outskirts of the crowd where his voice had not reached, the cry arose again of “Oliver!  Oliver!  The sons of the rich go free, but ours have to hang!”

At which he turned his head about, gave them one stare and fell back against the door.  It yielded and a woman’s arms received him.  The gentle Reuther in that hour of dire extremity, showed herself stronger than her mother who had fallen in a faint amid the crowd.

XXIII

THE MISFORTUNES OF MY HOUSE

To one who swoons but seldom, the moment of returning consciousness is often fraught with great pain and sometimes with unimaginable horror.  It was such to Deborah; the pain and horror holding her till her eyes, accustomed to realities again, saw in the angel face which floated before her vision amid a swarm of demon masks, the sweet and solicitous countenance of Reuther.

As she took this in, she took in other facts also:  that there were no demons, no strangers even about her:  That she and her child were comparatively alone in their own little parlour, and that Reuther’s sweet face wore a look of lofty courage which reminded her of something she could not at the moment grasp, but which was so beautiful.  At that instant her full memory came, and, uttering a low cry, she started up, and struggling to her feet, confronted her child, this time with a look full of agonised inquiry.

Reuther seemed to understand her; for, taking her mother’s hand in hers, she softly said: 

“I knew you were not seriously ill, only frightened by the crowd and their senseless shoutings.  Don’t think of it any more, dear mother.  The people are dispersing now, and you will soon be quite restored and ready to smile with us at an attack so groundless it is little short of absurd.”

Astounded at such tranquillity where she had expected anguish if not stark unreason, doubting her eyes, her ears—­for this was no longer her delicate, suffering Reuther to be shielded from all unhappy knowledge, but a woman as strong if not as wise to the situation as herself—­she scrutinised the child closely, then turned her gaze slowly about the room, and started in painful surprise, as she perceived standing in the space behind her the tall figure of Judge Ostrander.