Geoffrey's victory; $b or, the double deceptionSheldon, Georgie, Mrs.
General
Geoffrey's victory; $b or, the double deception
Sheldon, Georgie, Mrs.
Boston (Mass.) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction; Dime novels; Romance fiction
When Geoffrey repeated what she had told him about her traveling from
city to city, searching for her husband, working at whatever her hand
could find to do, to earn the money necessary to keep up her tireless
quest, he could control himself no longer. Great sobs broke from him.
“My girl! my girl! I never deserved it of her! Where is she, Master
Geoffrey? tell me and I’ll creep on my knees to her feet and ask her
forgiveness!” he wildly cried.
“Jack, she is here!”
“Here! Where?” and he glanced about him in fear and awe.
“Here, in this very house! waiting, longing to see you! to ease your
conscience of its burden, and tell you that she freely forgives
everything!”
“Can she?” the trembling husband breathed in an awed tone.
“Come and see,” Geoffrey returned, and taking him by the arm, he led him
toward the parlor where Margery was anxiously awaiting him, her patience
nearly exhausted by the long delay.
Reaching the door Geoffrey opened it, pushed Jack inside the room, then
shut the two in together.
“Jack!”
“Madge! my girl!”
The glad, fond cry of the wife, restored at last to her long-sought
loved one, the pleading, repentant intonation of the erring husband,
were the only sounds that he caught, as he turned away, and with tears
in his eyes, went out alone into the quiet summer night leaving them in
their joy.
Two hours later, Jack came to seek him, but he walked like a drunken
man, weakly and unsteadily.
His unexpected happiness was almost more than he had strength to bear,
and he seemed weak and shaken as if from a long illness; but on his
rough and weather-beaten face there was a look of peace and joy that
Geoffrey never forgot.
“Master Geoffrey,” he said, in an humble tone, though there was a ring
of gratitude and gladness in it; “it’s all right at last, thank God!
I’ll never say there ain’t a God again. I can face the whole world, now
that my Madge lives and loves me the same as ever. I can breathe free
once more, since I know her blood ain’t on my hands—oh! it’s too good
a’most to be true!” he continued, drawing a long, full breath, “and
bless ye, sir, all I’ve got in the world wouldn’t pay ye what I owe ye.”
“Jack, you owe me nothing,” Geoffrey responded, grasping him heartily by
the hand. “I do not forget who cared for me during the first few years
of my life, and if I have helped in any way to restore peace to you and
happiness to Margery, I am more than paid already.”
“Thank ye, sir; but won’t ye come in and sup with us—that is if ye
haven’t had something already.”
Jack pleaded with an air of humility.
“No. I’ve been too busy with my thoughts to care anything for eating,
and I’ll join you with pleasure,” Geoffrey answered, cordially.
He returned to the parlor with Jack, where he found Margery with a
beaming face, and the landlady laying the table for three.
It was two hours later before they separated for the night, and during
that time many plans for the future were discussed by the reunited
couple.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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