And yet I can't
realize it; I don't seem to care about it; all the bitterness was
over--"
"You are too bewildered yet, Brand--no wonder."
"If only the girl and her mother were over here!" he said; and then he
added, with a quick instinct of fear, "What will she say to me? When she
appealed to the Council, surely she could not have imagined that the
result would be her father's death. But now that she finds it so--when
she finds that, in order to rescue me, she has sacrificed him--"
He could not complete the sentence.
"But he has richly deserved it," said Edwards.
"That is not what she will look to," he said. "Edwards," he added,
presently, "I am going home now. This place stifles me. I hate the look
of it. That table is where they played their little sleight-of-hand
business; and oh! the bravery of the one and the indifference of the
other, and Lind's solemn exposition of duty and obedience, and all the
rest of it! Well, what will be the result when this pretty story becomes
known? Rascality among the very foremost officers of the Society! what
are all those people who have recently joined us, who are thinking of
joining us, likely to say? Are these your high-priests? Are these the
apostles of self-sacrifice, and all the virtues?"
"It is bad enough, but not irreparable," said Edwards, calmly.
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