With instinctive delicacy, desirous of sparing her further distress from painful recollections, he terminated the interview here.
In a rejoiced spirit he interpreted her look of overflowing gratitude as an acceptance of his uncle’s liberal offer, and he once more pressed her unreluctant hand, as, relieving her of any necessity for speaking, he informed her that he should convey to his kind-hearted relative her judicious decision upon the matter.
If he were not in love now, it is more than doubtful if ever he could be.
During the period which had elapsed between the rescue and the present moment, Flora had not, for an instant, forgotten her father.
The expression of dire misery which pervaded his features, when he parted from her in custody of Messrs. Jukes and Sudds, remained present to her as vividly as though it had been photographed upon her vision. It haunted her, and added greatly to the sad impression with which the recent occurrences and several afflicting events had clouded her young life in the years immediately past.
She wished so much to see her father again, to be with him, to minister to his wants and to his comforts, to both of which, she felt assured, he had no one to attend, and must, therefore, be plunged into a state of despairing wretchedness.
In accepting the offer of Mr. Harper, she saw—in no selfish or narrow-minded spirit, that she would, in her present dreadful strait, be at least provided with a home, until some means were obtained to place her where she would be no longer a burden to Mr. Harper, and she had not, therefore, hesitated thankfully to fall in with the arrangement proposed.
Yet she desired to be the companion and loving attendant upon her father in prison.
In prison!
How that dreadful word rang in her ears!