She rose, seated herself, and remained silent for a moment, her hands locked across her knees, her brows knit in thought.
“But why distress your heart over unknown things?” said Mrs. Darlington. “As you have learned by your today’s experience, mysteries solve themselves in due time.”
“Yes,” replied Merle, “but somehow I feel that this is the due time that I should know everything—for my dear father’s sake,” she added, “not for my own. Oh, mother, you should have seen his face of anguish just before he parted from me this afternoon. It was revealed to me only for an instant. But now I feel sure that something terrible is going to happen—to him.”
She was sobbing again, as she flung her arms impulsively around Mrs. Darlington’s neck and sat in her lap, just as if once again she had become a little child.
“Oh, mother mine—I shall always call you mother mine, for you have been a dear, sweet, kind mother to me ever since I can remember. But don’t you see that today I have also found a father whom I deeply love? Nothing must happen to him.”
“Why should anything happen to him?”
“I do not know. Where is Tia Teresa?”
The question came with startling suddenness as Merle started up with another ray of illumination in her mind.
“I haven’t seen her since morning,” replied Mrs. Darlington.
“Nor have I,” said Merle, standing erect, wiping away the traces of her tears, and with a few pats adjusting her rumpled hair. “That is very strange.”