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Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth), 1835-1915

"A Novel"


"I will never leave Winchester Gaol," he said, "until I leave it with my
character cleared in the eyes of every living creature."
He had been treated with the greatest respect by the prison officials,
and had been provided with comfortable apartments. Arthur Lovell and Mr.
Balderby were admitted to him whenever he chose to receive them.
Meanwhile every voice in Winchester was loud in indignation against
those who had caused the detention of the millionaire.
Here was an English gentleman, a man whose wealth was something
fabulous, newly returned from India, eager to embrace his only child;
and before he had done more than set his foot upon his native soil, he
was seized upon by obstinate and pig-headed officials, and thrown into a
prison.
Arthur Lovell worked nobly in the service of Laura's father. He did not
particularly like the man, though he wished to like him; but he believed
him to be innocent of the dreadful crime imputed to him, and he was
determined to make that innocence clear to the eyes of other people.
For this purpose he urged on the police upon the track of the strange
man, the rough-looking hawker, who had been seen in the grove on the day
of the murder.
He himself left Winchester upon another errand. He went away with the
determination of discovering the sick man, Sampson Wilmot.


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