For me there will be a release--quickly enough: I
shall pray for it. Now tell me what I must do: I will obey you."
"First, then," said he, speaking in a low voice, and in English, so that
her mother should not understand, "you must make light of this affair,
or you will distress your mother greatly, and she is not able to bear
distress. Some day, if you think it right, you may tell her; you know
nothing that could put the enterprise in peril; she will be as discreet
and silent as yourself, Natalie. Then you must put it out of your mind,
my darling, that you have any share in what has occurred. What have I to
regret? My life was worthless to me; you made it beautiful for a time;
perhaps, who knows, it may after all turn out to have been of some
service, and then there can be no regret at all. They think so, and it
is not for me to question."
"May I not tell my mother now?" she said, imploringly. "Dearest, how can
I speak to her, and be thinking of you far away?"
"As you please, Natalie. The little I have told you or Evelyn can do no
harm, so long as you keep it among yourselves.
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