“He awaits without. Would see the work, pay the price and go.”
“Let him come,” said Ouida.
Salmon retired for a moment, and when he returned, brought with him—Paul Strogoff, the sinned against!
He only said: “I come not in anger, nor in vengeance; only in sorrow, to crave your pardon, that I live.”
“Would that I had died ere this,” said Ouida.
Horatio bowed his head in shame and humiliation.
CHAPTER XXV. THE BEGINNING OF REDEMPTION.
Paul Strogoff’s sorrow had ennobled him, and, though the opportunity came to him to humiliate those who had wronged him, no man, born of woman, could have acted with rarer delicacy, than he did upon the trying occasion of the purchase of “The Modern Hercules.”
His behavior at that time produced marvelous results. It seemed to have had the effect of tearing aside the veil which had blinded the sculptress and her lover, to a realization of the enormity of their sin. They resolved to be no less noble in sacrifice than Paul had been. They had resolved to give each other up, and the separation had taken place.