"There is no doubt, my dear Isabel, that you behaved very badly to Paul Seaton; and it was a natural enough revenge, I think, to show to the world—in the person of his heroine—how heartless a fashionable woman can be. I really cannot see that you have any just ground for complaint, though perhaps some others of his characters have."
Then Isabel went to her own room, and cried as if her heart would break. She understood, as no one else could, the subtlety of Paul's revenge; and just at first she felt that her punishment was almost greater than she could bear.
After the secret of Angus Grey's identity leaked out, Paul Seaton sent the following letter to the minister:—
"MY DEAR FATHER,
"I should be grieved for you to learn from any third person that I have adopted the pseudonym of Angus Grey. I know that Shams and Shadows is not a book that you will like—perhaps I do not like it myself—but I would remind you, before you pass judgment upon it, that people who are sorely disappointed do not preach gospels of peace and goodwill. I also wish to tell you that—however bitterly I may have been disappointed in other people—the reverence I have always felt for your religion and my mother's will abide with me to my dying day. Do not let anything that you may read in the pages of Shams and Shadows ever lead you to doubt this.
"Your affectionate son,
"PAUL SEATON."
Mrs. Seaton cried over Shams and Shadows in secret, and longed to comfort the sore heart that could have written such a story; Joanna disapproved of the teaching of the book, but could not help thinking it clever; and the minister dealt justly with the matter, and felt that sorrow was a reason for bitterness but not an excuse.
As he and Joanna were going for a long country walk one Monday afternoon, the latter said: "I am sadly disappointed that the book Paul has been going to write all his life has turned out to be such a book as Shams and Shadows; he ought to have done something so different; but all the same I do not blame Paul as much as I blame Isabel. Though Paul has actually written the book, it was Isabel's cruelty to him that made him capable of writing it; for I am certain that she was cruel, though Paul has never said so."
"My child," said Mr. Seaton, "I cannot see that any unkindness on the part of Isabel can justify Paul's action in this matter. No one does wrong without some sort of temptation or excuse; yet we are none of us tempted above what we are able to bear, and it is our duty to avail ourselves of the way of escape provided for us."
"But, father, think how our Paul must have changed before he could write a bitter, cynical book like that! And I cannot yet forgive the woman who has altered him so."