"My dear, ask rather what people will think of him," said her mother tenderly, as she laid her lips in a gentle caress against the child's forehead.
"Of course, I know that nice people will not respect him; but I can't help feeling that the shame of it will touch us, too," opposed sensitive Dorothy.
"No, dear; what he has done, or may do, cannot harm either you or me in the estimation of our real friends," replied Helen, throwing a note of cheer she was far from feeling into her tones. "It can only bring condemnation upon himself, and you are not to feel any sense of degradation because of your father's wrongdoing. We are simply the innocent victims of circumstances over which we have no control; and, Dorrie, you and I will so live that all who know us will be compelled to respect us for ourselves."
Dorothy heaved a deep sigh of relief as her mother concluded, and her somber eyes brightened perceptibly. She sat silently thinking for f several minutes; then a cloud again darkened her face.
"Mamma," she began hesitatingly, "you said the law would give p—him the right to do as he pleases—to marry that woman. Can you do as you please? Could you——"
"Oh, hush, Dorothy!" gasped the tortured wife, in a shocked tone, and laying an icy hand over the girl's lips. "When I married your father," she went on more calmly after a little, "I promised to be true to him while we both lived, and you must never think of anything like that for me—never—never! He may choose another, but I—— Oh, God, my burden is heavier than I can bear!"
Helen Hungerford buried her agonized face in her hands, cowering and shrinking from the repulsive suggestion as if she had been smitten with a lash.
Dorothy was shocked by the effect of her thoughtless question. She had never seen her mother so unnerved before.
"Oh, mamma, don't!" she cried wildly. "I love you dearly—dearly—I did not mean to hurt you so, and I hate him for making you so wretched—for putting this dreadful disgrace upon us both. I will never forgive him—I never want to see him again. I know it is wicked to hate, but I can't help it—I don't care! I do—I do——"
These incoherent utterances ended in a piercing shriek as the overwrought girl threw herself prone upon the floor at her mother's feet, in a violent paroxysm of hysteria.