‘And you loved her with all your heart?’
‘I have never ceased to love her. It is that, Barbara, which’—he put his hands to his head, and she understood him—which disturbed his brain.
‘But,’ he said, suddenly as waking from a dream, ‘Barbara, how do you know all this? Who told you?’
She did not answer him, but she rose, knelt on the stool, put her arms round his neck, and kissed him. Her cheeks were wet.
‘You are crying, Barbara.’
‘I am thinking of your sorrows, dear papa.’
She was still kneeling on one knee, with her arms round her father. ‘Poor papa! I want to know really what became of Eve’s mother.’
The door was thrown open.
‘Yes; that is what I have come to ask,’ said Jasper, entering the room, holding a wax candle in each hand. He had intercepted the maid, Jane, with the candles, taken them from her, and as she opened the door entered, to hear Barbara’s question. The girl turned, dropped one arm, but clung with the other to her father, who had just placed one of his hands on her head. Her eyes, from having been so long in the dark, were very large. She was pale, and her cheeks glistened with tears.
She was too astonished to recover herself at once, dazzled by the strong light; she could not see Jasper but she knew his voice.