"I dared to love you when you were 'Miss Heatherford the heiress,' but I should not have presumed to try to win you while you were rich and I was poor. I have been so glad and proud to have won you while we were on the same plane socially, and to feel that we love each other for just what we are. I have exulted in the thought that it would be my privilege to work for you, and, perchance, restore you to the position you once occupied; but since I am to be denied that I can only bend all my energies toward making my name one that you will be proud to bear by and by."
"I am already proud of it, dear," said Mollie, with beaming eyes, "but I shall be even more so when it becomes my own."
Clifford's answer to this loving tribute need not be recorded, but, judging from the sweet laugh which rippled over Mollie's lips, it was entirely satisfactory.
CHAPTER XII.
MR. HEATHERFORD'S RECOVERY.
Immediately after Mr. Heatherford's removal to the Lamonti mansion, Mollie resolved to make one more desperate effort for his recovery and to spare no expense to put him under the most noted specialists for diseases of the brain that could be secured. After making diligent inquiries, she decided to send for Doctor ——, of New York, to come to Washington and diagnose her father's case. The great man came, but, after a careful and protracted examination, pronounced the fatal verdict, which she so dreaded to hear.
"Miss Heatherford, it pains me deeply to have to tell you that there is not the slightest ray of hope, as far as I can see," he said, and then lapsed into a learned description of the patient's condition, describing the state of his brain, the probable progress of the disease, and its inevitable termination, while Mollie felt as if she would herself become distracted before he concluded his terrible picture.
"Oh!" she cried at last, "then he must live on like this indefinitely, growing gradually more and more helpless! He is never to know anything more of life, never even give me, his only child, one fond word or look of recognition! How can I bear it?"
"My dear young lady, it is hard, I know," said the physician kindly, and deeply touched by the tearless grief, "and were it in my power to give you the least encouragement, I should be more than glad to do so. I have given you my opinion of the case as it appears to me," he went on after a moment of deep thought, "but if it would comfort you any to make one more trial, I will suggest that a noted Paris specialist, who is now in this country, be called to examine Mr. Heatherford. There is no higher authority in the world that I know of."
Mollie grasped eagerly at this straw, and the highest authority in the world, the great Paris doctor, was sent for at once. He came and went; but he left behind him only bitter disappointment and a sentence of doom.