“Stricken down by the wretch whom, in my pity and love, I had asked him to receive into his house, that he might redeem his character, and prove to the world that he had only been weak.”
“You—you did this!” he gasped.
“I did this; and found that in his love for his old friend my father had already determined to be a second father to his son.”
“Oh!”
“And for what? To bring him where he might play the part of serpent on the hearth, and sting him to the quick.”
“Madelaine, for God’s sake, mercy!”
She could have none then.
“To give shelter, ah! and, some day, the hand of the weak, trusting girl who loved him, and said, ‘Give him time, father, and he will change’—to give him some day her hand and love, and welcome him as a son.”
“Madelaine!” he cried, throwing himself on his knees to clasp the hem of her dress and literally grovel at her feet.
“To the man who could stoop to be a vile contemptible thief!”