“You perceive that your son has followed his own inclinations in renouncing me. And I pray you will believe me when I say that I, too, regret the past; bitterly regret that I was ever the cause of discord in your family. If you will now give me the paper, I will prove my sincerity by at once sundering the relations which bind me to your son, Robert Ellerton!”
With tears in his eyes, the unhappy father took a folded paper from his bosom and handed it to our heroine. He knew the beautiful young creature was suffering, despite her cold and haughty manner, and his heart melted at the sight of her pure, waxen face and pale, sternly compressed lips. Had he dared he would gladly have taken her in his arms and comforted her.
But she was unapproachable.
She hid her fearfully lacerated heart beneath a barrier of chilling scorn and contempt.
Dora ran her eyes swiftly over the paper.
It was in the form of an agreement between both parties, to annul the marriage ceremony which had been performed over six years before.
Robert Ellerton’s name was signed beneath!
With a dash of her pen Dora affixed her own name underneath, and then returned the document to Mr. Ellerton.
He placed it carefully in his pocket, and then rising, bade the ladies a polite “good-morning” and retired, sad and disappointed, from the room.
Our poor stricken lamb, utterly overcome by the restraint she had imposed upon herself, again fell lifeless to the floor.