This was the report which Luke Somerton gave to his wife.
“And so justice is done,” said Mrs. Somerton. “Thank God!”
The lawyer had discreetly prepared the two girls for what was to come, so that the extraordinary revelation and the great change might not come upon them so suddenly as to be dangerous.
The whole truth, when it was disclosed to them, changed all those feelings of estrangement which had lately been engendered by Amy’s desperate conduct.
In a moment Phœbe, with all the nobleness of her nature, felt Amy’s wrongs; and Amy’s heart overflowed with gratitude to Phœbe, and with love and sympathy.
“Sister, dear, dear sister!” Amy exclaimed, folding Phœbe in her arms, and sobbing aloud.
Phœbe hid her face in Amy’s neck, with a hundred strange emotions agitating her.
And then they sat together hand in hand, each occupied with her own thoughts; each too much under the influence of the change which had come to pass, to have any very clear thoughts about it.
Phœbe had all along mourned for Mr. Tallant with all the sorrow of a daughter; she had often felt, as my readers know, that all her love was not reciprocated, but she knew how much her mother had been loved, and how deeply her loss had affected him, and she loved him as a daughter and would continue to do so.