He quite realized that she had “burned her bridges behind her,” that her manner of going had left her no possibility of coming back, unless she came humbly, and in repentance.
Try as he might he could not picture that. Humble she might be, and repentant, but not until her spirit was broken by suffering.
He knew much of the world, much of human nature, and he knew that she would have to make her choice at once between evil and good. That alone she could not hope to live, as she had said that she was going to live. The good in her heart might save her even now. She was like a child. When this man offered her money and all the beautiful things she longed for, did she know the price she would be asked to pay? When she found it out would she shut her eyes, and go blindly on, or would the innate delicacy of her nature, the instinctive purity of girlhood, save her, as it has saved thousands before her? This was the only hope. He tried to have confidence; after all, she was her mother’s daughter. He cherished that thought. Her child could not sink so low! Great God! She could not do it!
In the stillness of the early morning he heard the clang of the iron doors of the elevator as they were thrown open in the hall outside, and a moment later John came in.
One look at his face was enough to tell him that he brought no good news, but whatever it was he must know it.
“Well, John?” He came forward to meet him. “What have you to tell us?”
John looked quickly at Dr. Barnhelm, and Dr. Crossett understood that what he had to tell would destroy any remaining hope that the old man might have cherished.
“Thank you, John, for doing what you have done.”
Dr. Barnhelm spoke quietly, but with a great weariness in his voice. “I know that I am not alone in my sorrow, but I wish to know nothing of what you have discovered; nothing now, or ever, of where she has gone, or of the things that she has done, or will do. I am going to ask you both not to speak of her in my hearing. It must be as though she were dead, until the day she comes back to me.”
He rose as he finished, and walked to the door.