"I am certain of it, Daddy."
"Well, then. Don't you think anything like that of me because of what I'm doing now. Sally, I'm doing my duty. I'm doing what will perhaps save our Duchess from what both you and me are frightened to speak of to each other. If this man that she's keeping company with--this gentleman, as she's spoken of at odd times, when I've tried to coax her to confide in me--this gentleman that meets her secretly, and is ashamed or afraid to show his face to me that stands in the light of a father to the girl he's following--if this gentleman is a gentleman (though his conduct don't say that much for him), and means fairly and honourably by our girl, then all's well. But I've got to satisfy myself of that. I should deserve the hardest things that could be said of me if I let our child walk blindly into a pit--if I, by holding back, assisted to make her beauty a curse instead of a blessing to her. Do you understand me?"
"I think I do."
"If," said Seth, with a tender animation in his voice, "this gentleman wants to marry her, and sets it down as a hard and fast consideration, that she should tear herself away from those who love her, and who have cared for her all these years--if he says to her, 'I am a gentleman, and when we are married you will be a lady; and as such you must never speak another word to the low people you've lived and associated with from a child;' if he says this to our Duchess, and we happen to know it, and that it's for her good it should be so, neither you nor me would step in her way. However sorry we should be, and lonely without her, we should say, 'Goodbye, Duchess, and God bless you! We'll never trouble you or your husband with a sight of our faces again.' Would that be in your mind as well as in mine, my girl?"
"Yes," replied Sally, with a sob.
"But we've got to make sure of that--and there's only one way to come to it, as our girl keeps her tongue still, and her thoughts shut from us. When I accepted the charge of her, I accepted a responsibility, and I'm not going to run away from it like a coward, because the proper carrying of it out will bring a sorrow to my heart that will remain there to my dying day. Do you think now I may look over what's in this trunk?"
"I am certain you'll do what's right, Daddy."
He gave her another tender glance, and proceeded to examine the trunk. It was filled with a girl's finery, of a better quality than that which belonged to a person in the Duchess's position of life. Lace collars and cuffs, feathers for hats, gloves, and underclothing of a fine texture. Sally's face grew paler as the articles were carefully lifted from the trunk by Seth, and placed upon the table.
"There are things here you've never seen before, Sally?"
Sally nodded, with lips compressed.