"Then that is at an end," she said. "I was almost foolish enough to
think that I would yield. You don't know what this disappointment is to
me. Everybody will be talking of it, and some of them will pity me, and
the rest laugh at me. I am ashamed of going out-of-doors anywhere. Oh,
it is too bad! I cannot bear it."
She was positively writhing with agitation; and tears, real tears I am
sure, started into my father's eyes.
"My poor little Julia!" he said; "my darling! But what can be done if
you will not marry Martin?"
"He ought to go away from Guernsey," she sobbed. "I should feel better
if I was quite sure I should never see him, or hear of other people
seeing him."
"I will go," I said. "Guernsey will be too hot for me when all this is
known."
"And, uncle," she pursued, speaking to him, not me, "he ought to promise
me to give up that girl. I cannot set him free to go and marry her--a
stranger and adventuress. She will be his ruin. I think, for my sake, he
ought to give her up."
"So he ought, and so he will, my love," answered my father. "When he
thinks of all we owe to you, he will promise you that."
I pondered over what our family owed to Julia for some minutes. It was
truly a very great debt. Though I had brought her into perhaps the most
painful position a woman could be placed in, she was generously
sacrificing her just resentment and revenge against my father's
dishonesty, in order to secure our name from blot.
On the other hand, I had no reason to suppose Olivia loved me, and I
should do her no wrong. I felt that, whatever it might cost me, I must
consent to Julia's stipulation.
"It is the hardest thing you could ask me," I said, "but I will give her
up. On one condition, however; for I must not leave her without friends.
I shall tell Tardif, if he ever needs help for Olivia, he must apply to
me through my mother."
"There could be no harm in that," observed my father.
"How soon shall I leave Guernsey?" I asked.
"He cannot go until you are well again, uncle," she answered. "I will
stay here to nurse you, and Martin must take care of your patients. We
will send him word a day or two before we return, and I should like him
to be gone before we reach home."
That was my sentence of banishment. She had only addressed me once
during the conversation. It was curious to see how there was no
resentment in her manner toward my father, who had systematically robbed
her, while she treated me with profound wrath and bitterness.
She allowed him to hold her hand and stroke her hair; she would not have
suffered me to approach her. No doubt it was harder for her to give up a
lover than to lose the whole of her property.
She left us, to make the necessary arrangements for staying with my
father, whose illness appeared to have lost suddenly its worst symptoms.
As soon as she was gone he regarded me with a look half angry, half
contemptuous.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account