"'I can give you no wedding and no honeymoon,' I had told her. 'My
father is dying and demands my care. From the altar to a death-bed
may be sad for you, but it is an inevitable condition of your
marriage with me.' And she had accepted her fate with a deep
unspeakable smile it has taken me long months of loneliness and
suffering to understand.
"'Father, I bring you my bride,' were my first words to him as the
door closed behind us shutting us in with the dread, invisible
Presence that for so long a time had been relentlessly advancing upon
our home.
"I shall never forget how he roused himself in his bed, nor with what
eager eyes he read her young face and surveyed her slight form
swaying towards him in her sudden emotion like a flame in a breeze.
Nor while I live shall I lose sight of the spasm of uncontrollable
joy with which he lifted his aged arms towards her, nor the look with
which she sprang from my side and nestled, yes nestled, on the breast
that never to my remembrance had opened itself to me even in the
years of my earliest childhood. For my father was a stern man who
believed in holding love at arm's length and measured affection by the
depth of awe it inspired.
"'My daughter!' broke from his lips, and he never inquired who she was
or what; no, not even when after a moment of silence she raised her
head and with a sudden low cry of passionate longing looked in his
face and murmured,
"'I never had a father.
Pages:
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154