“I didn’t listen. I was blind. I——”
“But perhaps I, too, have changed mood. I am not nearly so eager as I was last night, my daughter.”
He was not teasing. He meant it! There were longing and affection in his face before which she was utterly silent.
Then he looked into her eyes.
“Does the colony seem more possible this morning?” he asked seriously.
“Possible! Oh, the wonderful task! God-given. Are you sure, sure the priests meant it for me?”
“Quite sure. It was a long, serious discussion.”
“There is no one else,” she said humbly. “That is why they chose me. And that is why I must go. Inessa seems as if it were my own child, lonely, ruined, waiting for me.”
“Hmm—so that is your meaning this morning.”
She began to pace up and down. “Father, it is a thousand-fold task, the founding of a city.”