Part 37 (2/2)
”I am grateful for your interest in my behalf.”
”Do not mention it, madam. There is a pleasure in doing one's duty, which is superior to every other gratification.”
”May I ask what prompted you to give such advice?” asked Dr. Vaudelier, incredulously.
”The consciousness that my duty to this lady demanded it. It was not exactly in keeping with the profession, I am aware; but I felt obliged to sacrifice professional consistency to the call of justice,” said the attorney, in such a way as to leave it doubtful whether he was perpetrating a jest or a moral axiom.
”Humph!” said the doctor, with a doubtful sneer.
”Principle before professional advantage, is my motto, sir,” continued De Guy.
”Pray, what gave you the first intimation that all was not right between this lady and her uncle?”
”The voluntary confession of Mr. Dumont,” replied De Guy, readily.
”You do not believe Mr. Dumont would have abandoned his purpose, just as it was in the very act of being consummated, without a strong motive.”
”True; I understand that the body-servant of the late Colonel Dumont is upon this island. He must have informed the lady, by this time, of his share in the transaction.”
”Well.”
”And Mr. Dumont saw the boy the night before he left the steamer.”
”True.”
”Was not the reappearance, the rising from the dead, of this man, quite enough to convince him that all his plans had failed?”
”Why so?”
”The boy had the will!”
”It is all plain to me,” said Emily, more disposed to trust De Guy than Dr. Vaudelier was.
”Perfectly plain, madam; it is not at all strange that he should adopt this course. He must trust to his niece's good-nature to save him from exposure.”
”Perhaps this is only a plan to get the lady into his power again,”
suggested Dr. Vaudelier.
”I a.s.sure you it is not. He is sorely troubled in mind, even now, at the guilt which is fastened upon him. His conscience is awakened.”
”And well it might be,” said the doctor.
”True,” responded the silky attorney, with an appearance of honest indignation; ”but when we see a man disposed to repent, we should be ready to a.s.sist him.”
Dr. Vaudelier involuntarily turned his thoughts to the incidents of the morning,--called to mind the feelings which had been awakened in the presence of his penitent son, and he felt the full force of De Guy's argument.
”If Mr. Dumont is disposed to repent of the injury he has done his niece, and make atonement for it, I should, by all means, advise her to follow the course which, I am sure, her gentle nature suggests. 'To err is human; to forgive, divine.' The lady is a Christian, and will act in the true spirit of Christianity.”
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