CHAPTER XXXIX.
A TURNING POINT.
What a change a few moments often make! They seem of small note and yet to many lives they have wrought wondrous things.
Marguerite Verne sought her father's presence with a heart sad as it were possible to be, and left it some time later with a new light dawning upon her. A ray of hope had given warmth to her whole being, and in the inaudible "Thank God" what a world of gratitude was conveyed.
But it must not be inferred that the girl had no misgiving. The picture of the disappointed lover hung before her as a reminder that her release was purchased at the expense of another's happiness. Marguerite reasoned with herself. She was of a deep argumentative turn of mind, though her actions did not always endorse the statement.
"How shall I ever have courage to write Hubert!" thought she! "How shall I pen the words inflicting such a blow! Poor fellow! Whatever his faults are, and papa must know of some, I am certain he loved me, and would try to do better. Indeed, the only consoling thought I had was being the means of making him a better man, but then, it is dreadful to think of him as having committed some crime! Poor fellow! he has been led into it," and heaving a deep sigh of relief Marguerite once more felt truly grateful that she had been rescued from a fate which now to her seemed terrible.
"Papa does not seem inclined to explain matters and perhaps is as well," said she, taking a small portrait from a cabinet putting it away in a drawer which she seldom opened. "I will not destroy it. Poor Hubert! some day I may feel even more sympathy than I do now;" and Hubert Tracy in miniature was consigned to its solitary resting place.
Marguerite Verne's words were prophetic indeed.
She had remained some moments in utter abstraction when Cousin Jennie hastily entered telling her that Mr. Lawson had just left and that her father wished to see her.
"What an early call for Mr. Lawson," thought the girl as she went in answer to the message.