"Quite certain, father"; Faith answered, low, with downcast eyes, as she stood before him.
Her father laid his hand upon her head.
"You are a good girl; and I don't blame you; yet I thought you would have been safe and happy, so."
"I am safe and happy here at home," said Faith.
"Home is in no hurry to spare you, my child."
And Faith felt taken back to daughterhood once more.
Margaret Rushleigh had been to see her, before this. It was a painful visit, with the mingling of old love and new restraint; and the effort, on either side, to show that things, except in the one particular, were still unchanged.
Faith felt how true it was that "nothing could go back, precisely, to what it was before."
There was another visit, a day or two after the reassembling of the family at Cross Corners. This was to say farewell. New plans had been made. It would take some time to restore the mills to working order, and Mr. Rushleigh had not quite resolved whether to sell them out as they were, or to retain the property. Mrs. Rushleigh wished Margaret to join her at Newport, whither the Saratoga party was to go within the coming week. Then there was talk of another trip to Europe. Margaret had never been abroad. It was very likely they would all go out in October.
Paul's name was never mentioned.