She sprang out of bed and prayed long and earnestly. It soothed

and comforted her so to open her heart. But as soon as she

reviewed her position she found the sting was still there; that

she was not good enough, nor pure enough to be indifferent to the

lowered opinion of a fellow creature; that the thought of how he

must be looking upon her with contempt, stood between her and her

sense of wrong-doing. She took her letter in to her father as

soon as she was drest. There was so slight an allusion to their

alarm at the rail-road station, that Mr. Hale passed over it

without paying any attention to it. Indeed, beyond the mere fact

of Frederick having sailed undiscovered and unsuspected, he did

not gather much from the letter at the time, he was so uneasy

about Margaret's pallid looks. She seemed continually on the

point of weeping.

'You are sadly overdone, Margaret. It is no wonder. But you must

let me nurse you now.' He made her lie down on the sofa, and went for a shawl to cover

her with. His tenderness released her tears; and she cried

bitterly.

'Poor child!--poor child!' said he, looking fondly at her, as she

lay with her face to the wall, shaking with her sobs. After a

while they ceased, and she began to wonder whether she durst give

herself the relief of telling her father of all her trouble. But

there were more reasons against it than for it. The only one for

it was the relief to herself; and against it was the thought that

it would add materially to her father's nervousness, if it were

indeed necessary for Frederick to come to England again; that he

would dwell on the circumstance of his son's having caused the

death of a man, however unwittingly and unwillingly; that this

knowledge would perpetually recur to trouble him, in various

shapes of exaggeration and distortion from the simple truth. And

about her own great fault--he would be distressed beyond measure

at her want of courage and faith, yet perpetually troubled to

make excuses for her. Formerly Margaret would have come to him as

priest as well as father, to tell him of her temptation and her

sin; but latterly they had not spoken much on such subjects; and

she knew not how, in his change of opinions, he would reply if

the depth of her soul called unto his. No; she would keep her

secret, and bear the burden alone. Alone she would go before God,

and cry for His absolution. Alone she would endure her disgraced

position in the opinion of Mr. Thornton. She was unspeakably

touched by the tender efforts of her father to think of cheerful

subjects on which to talk, and so to take her thoughts away from

dwelling on all that had happened of late. It was some months

since he had been so talkative as he was this day. He would not

let her sit up, and offended Dixon desperately by insisting on

waiting upon her himself.




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