“If I could be a help to you, sir—if I felt that my presence gave you pleasure or comfort, I would stay willingly as long as you wished; but you have kept so much apart, that there has been no opportunity—”
Mr Farrell disengaged his hand, and turned aside with a wearied air.
“Good-bye, Melland!” he repeated. “I wish you a pleasant journey!”
So far as any change of voice or manner was concerned, he might not have heard the young man’s protest. Jack turned away, miserable and abashed. It was the last time he ever saw Bernard Farrell alive.
Chapter Thirty.
Fresh Trials for Ruth and Mollie.
Meanwhile, Ruth and Mollie were crying in each other’s arms in the privacy of their bedroom—that is to say, Ruth was crying and Mollie was storming and shedding an occasional tear more of anger than distress.
“I’ve never been so insulted in my life, and I won’t stand it from fifty thousand Uncle Bernards! I’ll tell him so, and make him beg my pardon and yours too, darling! Don’t cry! It makes your nose so red, and you hate to look a fright!”