Part 38 (1/2)
”My dear girl, can I be franker? Call it anything you like, theft, if you fancy the word; but the utter for any one”
”But--dear God!--don't you realise what your keeping it will mean to father? Yes, you do! You know too well--”
”I have shown you a way out of that difficulty Mr Bullard will do anything you ask--”
”And what a!--unless you wish to kill him For Heaven's sake, take a reasonable view of the matter A year hence your father will probably blessAs for Mr Craig, he will have helped even ht
Of course, your taste in accepting ed to another is open to question”
With a soft heart-broken cry Doris let go her hold and fell on her knees at the bedside
”Mother, in the naive me back the money I don't want to--hate you”
Mrs Lancaster touched a wisp of lace to her eyes, ”Really, Doris, you areit very painful for me, but some day you will see that I ise For the present, I would rather die than give up the money I have no more to say”
In sohter, but Doris always knehen her mind was immovable She knew it now She rose up from her knees Out of her deathly face her eyes blazed Had she spoken then, it would have been to utter an awful thing for any daughter to say to the one who bore her
”Doris!” exclai under her scented, exquisitely pure coverings
The girl threw up her head ”If father goes down,” she said bravely, ”I go doith hiet, utters” She turned and went quickly out
But in the privacy of her own roo, a creature of despair, writhing, groping in the darkness of an unspeakable horror If there was a sin unpardonable, surely her own mother had committed it If there was a bitterness beyond that of death itself, surely she herself was drinking thereof
Well was it for theto herself Afor her
She arose i herself that whatever happened, heof the disaster on the Rand must be postponed, whether Mr Bullard liked it or no For the present she had to give her father his breakfast and tell him of Alan's visit She prayed Heaven for a cheerful countenance
Mr Lancaster had rested well and was looking better, but anxious
”You didn't coht, after all,” he said
”Mother told me you were asleep, so I didn't disturb you--and I was unusually tired, dear”
”But he caain this evening, when he hopes to see you”
”Aren't you well, Doris? You shi+vered just nowWhat did he say?”
”Nothing that wasn't kind, father He wants you to go to Grey House for a change the o
What better news can I give you than that, dear?”
Lancaster's eyes grewthat he bears me no ill-will,” he said ”What did he talk about?”
”It was a very short visit last night,” she replied, ”but, as I told you, he is coht You think you will be able to see him?”