Dorothy sprang to her feet as if electrified, as indeed she was.
"Here!" she exclaimed, her voice resonant with joy. "My father here!"
CHAPTER XXII.
A HAPPY REUNION.
What of the man sitting alone there in Helen's library during the interview between Dorothy and her mother as just related?
Obeying Helen's behest, he had slipped into the room just as Dorothy entered the reception hall, where he had dropped into a chair, and sat, with his elbows on his knees, his face buried in his hands, like one bereft of hope—dazed, almost benumbed by his crushing disappointment in view of Helen's obvious attitude toward him.
For five long years he had lived and labored for this hour; with one high aim and end—one coveted goal set before him.
His aim was to redeem his wasted life. To do this meant, first of all, to make of himself a man worthy of the name—a man, the pattern of which he had caught an inspiring glimpse during Mrs. Everleigh's never-to-be-forgotten visits to him at the Grenoble five years ago. And second, to achieve fame and fortune by means of the great gift with which he had been endowed, but which he until now had never fully appreciated, or possessed the energy and stability to develop and perfect. And the end, the goal upon which his heart had been fixed, was to win back the beautiful and wonderful woman who had once been his wife, and with her his lovely daughter.
Only he himself knew what battles he had been forced to wage, while trampling under his feet the John Hungerford of former years; with his indolence, ease-loving habits, with his aversion to everything like real work and the propensity to shirk every possible responsibility; or how, during his first year or two in Paris, he had struggled with poverty, living in one poor, ill-furnished room, denying himself the luxuries, sometimes almost the necessities, of life, in order that he might avail himself of the coveted instruction of his old teacher.
Upon his arrival in Paris he had at once sought Monsieur Jacques—who, however, received him somewhat coldly at first—frankly stated his position to him and begged that he would accept him as a student again—at least until he could get a start for himself.