"Don't excite yourself," said Emily, seeing that Delia was growing feverish again. "If your mother is as good as every one says, I am sure you have no cause to fear her. Oh, dear me! I only wish I had a mother to turn to."
The door opened as she spoke, and Mrs. Pomeroy entered, followed by Mr. and Mrs. Mason. Mr. Mason had been very angry at hearing of his daughter's misconduct, and had fully determined to treat her with great sternness, a resolution from which Mrs. Pomeroy had attempted in vain to dissuade him. As they were going up stairs, however, Mrs. Mason dropped behind and whispered to her.
"You need have no fear of Mr. Mason's using any undue severity. You will see how it will be!"
Delia was still confined to her bed, but she raised herself, as they entered, and looked eagerly towards them. She had grown very thin and pale of late, and her black eyes looked unnaturally large and bright. She did not speak at first. Mr. Mason made an effort to deliver his intended reproof.
"Delia!" he began, with an extra amount of sternness in his voice, as he felt his courage giving way at the sight of his daughter. "I am very much shocked—I could never have believed that a daughter of mine—bless me, how thin she is—why she looks like a ghost. There, there, don't cry, poor dear, and we won't say any more about it, just now. It is all over, and you have only to get well, and try to do better in future."
Mrs. Mason glanced at Mrs. Pomeroy, as she stooped to kiss Delia, while Mr. Mason walked away to the window, to blow his nose and wipe his spectacles.
"Oh, mother!" were Delia's first words. "If I had only been guided by you, I should never have been where I am."
"Try not to agitate yourself, my love," was Mrs. Mason's quiet reply. "We can talk of that another time. You must keep yourself quiet as possible now, in order not to increase your fever. Mrs. Pomeroy has told us the whole story, and we are ready to forgive every thing. Nobody else knows any thing of the matter, and you have nothing more to fear from your persecutor."
"I don't want you to judge him too hardly, mother," said Delia. How naturally the word mother now came to her lips, and how she wondered that she should ever have found it so hard to speak. "I do not think Mr. Hugo was nearly so much to blame as myself. He would never have thought of such a thing, if I had behaved properly."
"I dare say not," said Mrs. Mason. "In ninety-nine such cases out of a hundred, the fault rests more with the woman than the man. If a girl respects herself, other people will respect her."