When the Doctor and I left the cell together, she was composed,
and ready (in the performance of her promise) to listen to
the exhortations of the Minister. The sleeping child was left
undisturbed, by the mother's desire. If the Minister felt tempted
to regret what he had done, there was the artless influence
which would check him! As we stepped into the corridor, I gave
the female warder her instructions to remain on the watch, and
to return to her post when she saw the Minister come out.

In the meantime, my companion had walked on a little way.

Possessed of ability and experience within the limits of
his profession, he was in other respects a man with a crotchety
mind; bold to the verge of recklessness in the expression of
his opinion; and possessed of a command of language that carried
everything before it. Let me add that he was just and merciful
in his intercourse with others, and I shall have summed him up
fairly enough. When I joined him he seemed to be absorbed in
reflection.

"Thinking of the Prisoner?" I said.

"Thinking of what is going on, at this moment, in the condemned
cell," he answered, "and wondering if any good will come of it."

I was not without hope of a good result, and I said so.

The Doctor disagreed with me. "I don't believe in that woman's
penitence," he remarked; "and I look upon the parson as a poor