This lack of grace in him had not passed unnoted by her even at
the time, but being herself so greatly in fault she had ascribed
it to the recoil of a proud man from the dread of social
humiliation. But it took another aspect under the strong light
just thrown upon his early life by her discovery in the room
below. Nothing but some act, unforgivable and unforgettable would
account for that black mark drawn between a father's eyes and his
son's face. No bar sinister could tell a stronger tale. But this
was no bar sinister; rather the deliberate stigmatising of one yet
loved, but banned for a reason which was little short of--Here her
conclusions stopped; she would not allow her imagination to carry
her any farther.
Unhappy mother, just as she saw something like a prospect of
releasing her long-dead husband from the odium of an unjust
sentence, to be shaken by this new doubt as to the story and
character of the man for whose union with her beloved child she
was so anxiously struggling! Should it not make her pause? Should
she not show wisdom in giving a different meaning from any she had
hitherto done, to that stern and inexorable dictum of the father,
that no marriage between the two could or should ever be
considered?
It was a question for which no ready answer seemed possible in her
present mood. Better to await the time when some move had to be
made or some definite decision reached. Now she must rest,--rest
and not think.
Have any of us ever made the like acknowledgment and then tried to
sleep? In half an hour Mrs.
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