“She has asked you to bring me?”
“Yes. How did you know?”
“I could read it in your eyes, father,” said Claire. “Oh, it is impossible.”
“I will not press you, my child; but it is almost life to me, and it would be giving us a stepping-stone to recover our lost ground.”
“Do you wish me to go, father?”
“If—if—you would not mind very much, my dear,” he said hesitatingly. “It would be helping me.”
He kissed her hand and left her to her own thoughts. The tears flowed for a while, and then, with a sigh, Claire rose with a look of resignation on her countenance, as if she accepted her fate.