“Your daughter, madam, is I am afraid, paying a terrible price for charity to me.”
“My daughter, sir, has been taught to consider it proper to discharge a duty and leave the consequences to Heaven. But are you aware, captain, that my daughter felt it a duty to acquaint me with an interesting account which you gave her of your own life?”
“I gave her full permission to do so.”
“I have come, having had the small-pox, to assist in the care of my daughter, and as far as possible, to supply her place by your bedside.”
“I have not deserved this from Heaven or of men. Help me only to understand and do my duty, and you will complete the work which Amelia began.”
In some conversation which Mrs. Bertrand had with Captain W. the next day, she alluded to his resolution to make reparation as far as possible for any injury he had inflicted on others. “Do you,” said she, “continue of that resolution?”
“Increasingly so. And if now I could find where I might begin the work, I would divest myself at once, if necessary, of every dollar I possess to alleviate the suffering I have caused.”
“Such a sacrifice can scarcely be required, it is certainly not necessary so far as I understand your situation.”
“What then can I do—when shall I begin the work of repentance?”
“It is undoubtedly begun already in the resolve of restitution. I take that to be the essence of repentance, or rather the evidence of it.”