Part 62 (1/2)
”No, mother, there is no other girl,” cried Helen. ”I don't care who told you.”
”Helen, I am ashamed of you,” exclaimed her mother, angrily. ”Dear mother,” said Helen, falling on her knees and putting her arms about her mother, ”I cannot help loving him, and I cannot help being happy.
Oh, mother, he is splendid. You ought to have heard him to-night, and you ought to have seen the people. Why, the ministers almost hugged him. And oh, mother, mother, as he came down and pa.s.sed my seat, he turned and looked at me. He did not expect to see me, and he was off his guard, and then I knew, oh, I knew. He is just the same. Oh, mother, be happy with me.”
Her mother burst into tears.
”Oh,” she sobbed, ”I thought I was to have one child left. I am indeed bereaved.”
”Hush, mother,” cried Helen. ”I will not leave you.”
”But you love him?”
”Yes, yes. With all my heart.”
”He will not give up his work in that awful country?”
”No,” said the girl proudly, ”he will not, not even for me. But he will love me always and I will love him, and that is enough just now.”
”Helen, listen to me. You will never marry him with my consent,” said Mrs. Fairbanks, determinedly.
”And he would never marry me without,” replied Helen.
”What, then, is your future to be?”
”Oh, I will stay with you, mother darling.”
”And he?” inquired Mrs. Fairbanks.
”He? Oh, I don't know, but he will always love me, mother.”
In desperation Mrs. Fairbanks sent next day for Shock. Her one hope, lay in his fine sense of honour, and in his generosity.
”Mr. Macgregor,” she said, when Shock stood before her, ”I want to appeal to your generosity. You will not stand in the way of my daughter's happiness?”
”Mrs. Fairbanks, I thought I had made myself clear. What more can I say or do?”
”She fancies you still love her. Could not you disabuse her of her foolish fancy?”