Part 36 (1/2)
”Jerome, this is a sorry visit you have made me,” continued the doctor.
”Are you entirely lost to all shame, that you could thus enter my house with a band of ruffians behind you?”
”Father,” said the convicted Vernon, ”I did not know it was your house, or I could never have done it.”
”Alas, that a son of mine should have become a midnight a.s.sa.s.sin!” and Dr. Vaudelier covered his face with his hands, and sobbed like a child.
”Forgive me, father!” exclaimed the repentant son. ”Forgive me!”
”G.o.d and your country alone can forgive crimes like yours!”
”Easy with him, doctor!” interposed Jerry, fearful lest the son's repentance should be dissipated before the father's sternness.
”I will atone for all, to the best of my ability.”
”Would that you might do so!”
”I will! Heaven witness my sincerity!”
”Your first act of atonement must be to the lady you have so deeply injured.”
”I would be her slave for life!”
”If you are sincere, you will disclose all you know of the wrongs which have been inflicted upon her.”
”I fear, for her sake, that my knowledge is too limited to avail anything to her. Maxwell a.s.sured me she was his slave, and showed me the bill of sale. I believed him, or he could never have had my help.”
”You were too willing to believe him,” said the doctor, sternly.
”I told him, at the outset, that I would expose all I knew (which is but little), if I discovered she was not a slave. I will tell you all.”
”Let Miss Dumont be called, Jerry.”
Emily came at the summons, and Dr. Vaudelier informed her of the position of the matter.
”Can you forgive me, Miss Dumont, for the wrong I have done?”
”Freely, sir; and may G.o.d enable you to persevere in the course you have taken!”
”Thank you! With an angel's prayer, I shall begin the new life with the strength your good wishes impart.”
Vernon now related all he knew of the machinations of the attorney, concealing no part of his own or his confederate's villany. Of the will he knew nothing, his operations having been confined to the attempts to obtain possession of her person.
Dr. Vaudelier was satisfied that his son had told the whole truth. It was a source of much satisfaction to him that he had chosen the better part. His fervent prayer ascended that the penitent might be faithful to his good resolutions.
All the circ.u.mstances relating to the will were unknown to Vernon, which was the occasion of much congratulation both to his father and to Emily.
It seemed to relieve him from some portion of the guilt which the subsequent transactions fastened upon him; and, when these circ.u.mstances were related to him, a burst of generous indignation testified that he, the blackleg, the robber, was above such villany. However depraved in some respects, that vice which is commonly called _meanness_ had no place within him. He was, or rather had been, of that cla.s.s of operators who ”rob the rich to pay the poor;” who have no innate love of vice, only a desire to be free from wholesome restraint, and have at hand, without toil or sacrifice, the means of enjoying life to the utmost.