Marion, rising from her chair, kissed his lips and cheeks, and accompanied him to the door. "It will be all well, my father," she said; "it will be all well, and your child will be happy."
About half-an-hour afterwards there came a knock at the door, and Marion for a moment thought that her lover was already there. But it was Mrs. Roden who came up to her in the drawing-room. "Am I in the way, Marion?" she asked. "I will be gone in a minute; but perhaps I can say a word first."
"Why should you be in the way?"
"He is coming."
"Yes, I suppose so. He said that he would come. But what if he come? You and he are old friends."
"I would not be here to interrupt him. I will escape when we hear the knock. Oh, Marion!"
"What is it, Mrs. Roden? You are sad, and something troubles you?"
"Yes, indeed. There is something which troubles me sorely. This lover of yours?"
"It is fixed, dear friend; fixed as fate. It does not trouble me. It shall not trouble me. Why should it be a trouble? Suppose I had never seen him!"
"But you have seen him, my child."