The String of Pearls (1850), p. 276

"Ah, Arabella, we must have seen that dog."
"Has not the creature, then, fallen a victim to Todd's malevolence?"
"We think not, sir," said Arabella.
"Go on—go on," said Johanna; "what more?"
"The boy states that he is certain he saw the hat of the visitor with the dog in Todd's house, after Todd had declared he had left, and proceeded to the city."
"The hat—the dog. Alas! alas!"
"Nay, Miss Oakley, do not forget one thing, and that is, that neither you nor any one else have as yet identified this Mr. Thornhill as Mr. Ingestrie."
"No, not positively; but my heart tells me—"
"Ah, Miss Oakley, the heart is the slave of the feelings and of the imagination. You must not always trust to its testimony or emotions upon cold fact."
"There is yet hope, then, Johanna," said Arabella. "A bright hope for you
to cling to, for, as this gentleman says, there is nothing positive to prove that Mr. Thornhill was Mark Ingestrie. I would not, were I you, abandon that hope on any account, while 1 lived, and could still clutch it. Would it not be a great thing, sir, if any papers or documents which this Thornhill might have had about him, could be recovered ?"
"It would indeed."
Arabella at first seemed upon the point of saying something contingent upon this remark of the colonel's, or rather this acquiescence of his in her remark, but she thought better of it, and was silent, upon which Johanna spoke, saying—
"And that is really all, sir?"
"It is, Miss Oakley."
"But will nothing be done? Will no steps be taken to bring this man, Todd to justice?"
"Yes, everything will be done; and indeed, anything that can be done consistently with sound policy is actually now. Sir Richard Blunt, one of the most acute, active, and personally daring of the magistrates of London, has the affair in hand, and you may be quite assured that he will pursue it with zeal."
"And what is he doing?"
"Collecting such evidence against Todd, that at a moment the law will be enabled to come upon him with a certainty that by no ingenious quibble can he escape."
Johanna shuddered.
"I thank you, sir, from my heart," she said, " for all the kindness and—and—I need not again trespass upon your time or your patience."
"Ah, Miss Oakley, will you deny me your friendship?"
"Oh, no—no."
"Then why deny me the privilege of a friend to see you sometimes. If I
cannot say to you anything positively of a consoling character regarding him whom you so much regret, I can at least share your sorrows, and sympathise with your feelings.''
Johanna was silent, but after a few moments she began to feel that she was acting both with harshness and injustice towards one who had been all that the kindest and most generous friend could be to her. She held out her hand to the colonel, saying—
"Yes, sir, I shall be always happy to see you."
The colonel pressed her hand in his, and then turning to Arabella Wilmot, they parted at the garden.

CHAPTER LIX.

THE PROPOSAL OP ARABELLA.

"Johanna," said Arabella Wilmot, as they passed out of the Temple by the old gate at Whitefriars, "Johanna, if there had been no Mark Ingestrie in the world, could you not have loved some one else truly?"