‘Father, how can I contemplate a marriage with him without first telling him the truth? Am I to leave it to chance whether he finds out or no that—that you did what you told me? I could not do it. Such a life would kill me. I will marry no man unless he knows the whole story.’
‘Would you betray my confidence?’ exclaimed Dr Fellows bitterly. ‘Have my long years of secret sorrow and humiliation not been sufficient punishment for me, but that my child will hold me up to public degradation?’
‘No, no, father; do not say that! Not a word that you uttered shall ever pass my lips without your free consent. I will do anything rather than repeat them. I will even give up—Henri de Courcelles.’
‘And would that break your heart, my dear?’
‘Never mind if it breaks my heart!’ she cried, with a sudden storm of weeping; ‘if it must be, it must be, and there is no alternative. I love him too well to deceive him, and I love you too well to betray you. It is no one’s fault—it is only my misfortune; but I must end it at once and for ever, or it will get the better of me. To-morrow I will tell Henri de Courcelles that our engagement is at an end.’
‘Do nothing in a hurry,’ replied her father wearily. ‘Be patient for a few days, Lizzie, and we may think of some way out of this dilemma. You owe it to Monsieur de Courcelles as well as to yourself—’
At this moment a young negress, with a yellow handkerchief bound about her woolly head, and the tears running down her black cheeks, hastily entered the bungalow.
‘Massa Fellows,’ she cried, ‘I bring berry bad news. Poor Mammy Lila gone to heaven! Mammy took sick with fever last night, and no one to send for Doctor but me, and I got de chile to tend. So Mammy say, “Gib me pepper pot, and I all right to-morrow;” but morning time Mammy go home. And Aunty Cora come and stay by her, and she tell me take dis chile back to Dr Fellows, ’cause Mammy Lila dead, and dis nigger must go home to her fader and moder.’
‘Why, it’s Judy, Mammy Lila’s grandchild, and she has brought the infant back again!’ exclaimed Liz, as she saw the bundle in the girl’s arms.
‘Mammy Lila gone! Here’s a misfortune to upset all our plans,’ said the Doctor.