“A double reason—my desire to see my boy, for he is mine even though the cruel law took him from me—and the longing that for one night I might be under the same roof that shelters them both. Once in the long ago we made a happy family. O God! that Satan’s hand came between! Years of atonement have followed—will suffering never wash out a sin like that? But I forget myself—I vowed I would control my feelings if I came. You will not betray one so wretched?”
“Not for worlds. But you must tell me how you managed to gain access here.”
“I know his housekeeper. She was a nurse in the hospital when I was head nurse, and she owed me some gratitude. When I asked this favor she readily granted it, though of course utterly ignorant of my motive.”
He has not forgotten what she declared was her hope—that Heaven would give her a chance to prove her love, her repentance, before the grim Destroyer, who had fastened upon her, came to claim his victim.
Thus he is assured that she will do no harm, though he can hardly believe she is wise in enduring the melancholy pleasure of gazing upon forbidden fruit.
“Have you met him?” he asks, curious to know whether Samson Cereal could suspect.
“Oh, yes! but I am utterly unlike the Adela he married in the long ago. Besides, these glasses which I carry give me a different look.”
She puts them on, and Aleck admits he would not have known her.
“He failed to recognize you, then?”
“Yes. I trembled a little, for he looked at me steadily with those stern eyes; but believing me to be dead years ago, he did not suspect. Oh, sir! imagine my feelings in this house, where but for that one fatal indiscretion I even now might be the proud and happy mistress. God give me courage and strength to warn others to avoid the rocks upon which my life was wrecked.”