“Mr. Van Hoosen is here, ma’am, and wishes to see you,” said a servant.
Adriana thought of her brother with a sense of comfort. She felt that she could open her heart to him. But it was not Antony, it was Antony’s father who came towards her with outstretched hands, and a blessing that fell like rain upon her hot heart.
“God has sent you, father,” she said solemnly; “for I am in a strait, in such a strait as no one but you can help me out of.” Then she told him all her sorrow; and it was evident to Peter that the sting of her grief was her husband’s frailty. “If Harry were only good!” she cried despairingly. “I could bear the loss of his love.”
“But, Yanna, my dearest one! what man is good? Was any one ever exempt from sin but the Son of the Virgin?”
“Oh, father!” she cried passionately, “will you be like the rest of the world, and take a man’s view of this question, just because you are a man?”
“My dear one, neither must you take a woman’s view just because you are a woman. The common law and the social law may regard sex; the commands of God are issued to man and woman alike; though our merciful Creator, no doubt, will judge us according to our circumstances and our temptations.”
“If Harry wrongs me, or I wrong Harry, the sin is the same against God.”
“It is. But it is not the same against each other. Harry could never wrong you as you could wrong Harry.”
“Oh, father! How can you say such a thing?”