"Cora!" he exclaimed; "Cora, you here!"
"Yes, dearest father. I know—I know that it is against your commands that I have come, but I felt that it could not be against your wishes."
Gerald Leslie's head dropped upon his breast with a gesture of despair.
"It needed but this," he murmured, "to complete my ruin."
These words were uttered in a voice so low as to escape the ear of Cora; but she could still perceive that her coming had not given her father the pleasure she had fondly hoped to have seen written in his face, when he first beheld her.
"Father, father," she cried, piteously, clasping her arms about his neck, and gently drawing round his head, so as to be able to look in his face; "father, can it be that you do not love me?"
"Not love you, Cora, my darling, my darling!" Clasping his child to his breast, Gerald Leslie burst into a passion of sobs.
This was her welcome home.
CHAPTER V.
A FAMILY PARTY.