"I guess Mr. Putney knows pretty well whom he's got to deal with, and
that he's safe in abusing you all he likes," said Adeline. "But I don't
see how such respectable people as Dr. Morrell and Mrs. Morrell can
tolerate him. I've no patience with Dr. Morrell, or his wife, either. To
be sure, they tolerate Mrs. Wilmington, too."
Suzette went over to her father to kiss him. "Well, I'm going to bed,
papa. If you'd wanted more of my society you ought to have come down
sooner. I suppose I sha'n't see you in the morning; so it's good-bye as
well as good-night. When will you be home?"
"Not for some days, perhaps," said the unhappy man.
"How doleful! Are you always so homesick when you go away?"
"Not always; no."
"Well, try to cheer up, this time, then. And if you have to be gone a
great while, send for me, won't you?"
"Yes, yes; I will," said Northwick. The girl gave his head a hug, and
then glided out of the room. She stopped to throw him a kiss from the
door.
"There!" said Adeline. "I didn't mean to let Mrs. Wilmington slip out;
she can't bear the name, and I _know_ it drove her away. But you mustn't
let it worry you, father. I guess it's all going well, now."
"What's going well?" Northwick asked, vaguely.
"The Jack Wilmington business. I know she's really given him up at last;
and we can't be too thankful for that much, if it's no more. I don't
believe he's bad, for all the talk about him, but he's been weak, and
that's a thing she couldn't forgive in a man; she's so strong herself."
Northwick did not think of Wilmington; he thought of himself, and in the
depths of his guilty soul, in those secret places underneath all his
pretences, where he really knew himself a thief, he wondered if his
child's strength would be against her forgiving his weakness. What we
greatly dread we most unquestioningly believe; and it did not occur to
him to ask whether impatience with weakness was a necessary inference
from strength. He only knew himself to be miserably weak.
He rose and stood a moment by the mantel, with his impassive, handsome
face turned toward his daughter as if he were going to speak to her. He
was a tall man, rather thin; he was clean shaven, except for the grayish
whiskers just forward of his ears and on a line with them; he had a
regular profile, which was more attractive than the expression of his
direct regard. He took up a crystal ball that lay on the marble, and
looked into it as if he were reading his future in its lucid depths, and
then put it down again, with an effect of helplessness. When he spoke,
it was not in connection with what his daughter had been talking about.
He said almost dryly, "I think I will go up and look over some papers I
have to take with me, and then try to get a little sleep before I
start."
"And when shall we expect you back?" asked his daughter, submissively
accepting his silence concerning her sister's love affairs. She knew
that it meant acquiescence in anything that Sue and she thought best.
"I don't know, exactly; I can't say, now. Good-night."
To her surprise he came up and kissed her; his caresses were for Sue,
and she expected them no more than she invited them. "Why, father!" she
said in a pleased voice.
"Let James pack the small bag for me, and send Elbridge to me in about
an hour," he said, as he went out into the hall.