While I spoke I hardly dared to look at Father Dan, fearing he would
shake his head again, perhaps reprove me, perhaps laugh at me. But his
eyes which had been moist began to sparkle and smile.
"You mean that?" he asked.
"Yes."
"And you will go away with him on that condition?"
"Yes, yes."
"Then he must agree to it."
The pure-minded old priest saw no difficulties, no dangers, no risks of
breakdown in my girlish scheme. Already my husband had got all he had
bargained for. He had got my father's money in exchange for his noble
name, and if he wanted more, if he wanted the love of his wife, let him
earn it, let him win it.
"That's only right, only fair. It will be worth winning, too--better
worth winning than all your father's gold and silver ten times over. I
can tell him that much anyway."
He had risen to his feet in his excitement, the simple old priest with
his pure heart and his beautiful faith in me.
"And you, my child, you'll try to love him in return--promise you will."
A shiver ran through me when Father Dan said that--a sense of the
repugnance I felt for my husband almost stifled me.
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