concerned in impressing on the dazed intelligence before him the responsibility of the promises he had given.
"To-morrow, then, at nine you are at the shop."
"Assuredly, if you wish it, little father."
"Remember, it is the last chance your master will give you. He is very kind to give you this chance. To-morrow you begin a new course of conduct; and when the young lady comes back I will tell her of it."
"I will not add to her troubles, little father; you may be sure of it this time."
When he had gone, Brand turned to his companion. He still held that letter in his hands. His face, that had grown somewhat haggard of late, was even paler than usual.
"I suppose I ought to feel very glad, Edwards," he said. "This is a reprieve, don't you see, so far as I am concerned. And yet I can't realize it; I don't seem to care about it; all the bitterness was over—"
"You are too bewildered yet, Brand—no wonder."
"If only the girl and her mother were over here!" he said; and then he added, with a quick instinct of fear, "What will she say to me? When she appealed to the Council, surely she could not have imagined that the result would be her father's death. But now that she finds it so—when she finds that, in order to rescue me, she has sacrificed him—"
He could not complete the sentence.