He
ventured to expect but partial success in this attempt, but he could
promise her that, whatever his failure, he would never again
interpose between her generous heart and her brilliant prospects and
filial duties. He closed with an intimation that his professional
pursuits might compel him to travel for some months, and with the
hope that when they should each have accommodated themselves to what
was sternly involved in their respective positions--even should this
result not be reached for years--they should meet as friends, as
fellow-sufferers, as innocent but philosophic victims of a great
social law. That her life should be peaceful and happy was the
dearest wish of him who ventured still to subscribe himself her most
obedient servant. The letter was beautifully written, and Catherine,
who kept it for many years after this, was able, when her sense of
the bitterness of its meaning and the hollowness of its tone had
grown less acute, to admire its grace of expression. At present, for
a long time after she received it, all she had to help her was the
determination, daily more rigid, to make no appeal to the compassion
of her father.
He suffered a week to elapse, and then one day, in the morning, at an
hour at which she rarely saw him, he strolled into the back parlour.
He had watched his time, and he found her alone. She was sitting
with some work, and he came and stood in front of her.
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