Then, quickly rising, he went over and stood before her, with bowed head, and hands clinched, as if he were struggling with some terrible emotion.
“Miss Brownie,” he continued, speaking very gently and humbly, “I have a very humiliating confession to make. I pray you, when you have heard it, to judge me as kindly as you can, and whatever you do with me to meet the claims of justice, if you will only say on your own part that you forgive an old man, it will take the heaviest burden of my life from my heart.”
She could not understand what this proud, self-reliant man, who for many years had had charge of all her aunt’s affairs, could mean by speaking in this humble, broken way to her.
“You wonder at my words,” he went on, “and yet you look trustingly upon me; but it will not be quite so when I tell you that I have betrayed that trust.”
“Betrayed my trust!” she repeated.
“Yes, betrayed your trust, betrayed your aunt’s trust, and played the villain of the deepest dye. Miss Douglas, I have made a beggar of you!”
“Conrad, man, are you mad?” exclaimed Dr. Sargeant.
“Surely, my friend, you do not mean anything so bad as you have stated,” said the kind-hearted clergyman, in grave tones.
“A beggar!” cried Miss Huntington, she alone taking in the full sense of the word, and appalled at her friend’s calamity.
“Did you understand me, Miss Douglas?” asked Mr. Conrad, somewhat impatiently, and wondering at her apathy, while he did not heed the questions of the others.