"
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.
He! and she must face him! the man whom she by her blind and
untimely efforts to regain happiness for Reuther, had brought to
this woful pass! The ordeal was too bitter for her broken spirit
and, shrinking aside, she covered her face with her hands like one
who stands detected in a guilty act.
"Pardon," she entreated, forgetting Reuther's presence in her
consciousness of the misery she had brought upon her benefactor.
"I never meant--I never dreamed--"
"Oh, no apologies!" Was this the judge speaking? The tone was an
admonitory, not a suffering one. It was not even that of a man
humiliated or distressed. "You have had an unfortunate experience,
but that is over now and so must your distress be." Then, as in
her astonishment she dropped her hands and looked up, he added
very quietly, "Your daughter has been much disturbed about you,
but not at all about Oliver or his good name. She knows my son too
well, and so do you and I, to be long affected by the virulent
outcries of a mob seeking for an object upon which to expend their
spleen.
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