It would so cruel to break up a home merely to indulge a morbid desire
for atonement. No, Miss Liddell. Be guided by me; accept the life you
have brought upon yourself. _I_, the only one who has a right to do it,
willingly resign what ought to have been yours without your
unfortunately illegal act. Your secret is perfectly safe with me. Time
will heal the wounds you have inflicted on yourself and enable you to
forget. Leave this ill-omened document with me; it is safer than in your
hands. Indeed there is no use in keeping it."
"But what--what will become of _you?_" she asked, with strange
familiarity, the outcome of strong excitement which carried her over all
conventional limits.
"Oh, I have had some training in the world both of men and books, and I
hope to be able to keep the wolf from the door."
"Would you not accept part at least--a sum of money, you know, to begin
something?" asked Katherine, her voice quivering, her nerves relaxing
from their high tension, and feeling utterly beaten, her high resolves
of sacrifice and renunciation tumbling about her, like a house of cards,
at the touch of common-sense.
"I do not think any arrangements of the kind practicable," returned
Errington, with a kind smile.
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