Page:Eliot - Felix Holt, the Radical, vol. II, 1866.djvu/172

162 father, and had not moved even her clasped hands while he was speaking. But after the long outpouring in. which he seemed to lose the sense of everything but the memories he was giving utterance to, he paused a little while and then said timidly,

"This is a late retrieval of a long error, Esther. I make not excuses for myself, for we ought to strive that our affections be rooted in the truth. Nevertheless you —— "

Esther had risen, and had glided on to the wooden stool on a level with her father's chair, where he was accustomed to lay books. She wanted to speak, but the floodgates could not be opened for words alone. She threw her arms round the old man's neck and sobbed out with a passionate cry, "Father, father! forgive me if I have not loved you enough. I will — I will!"

The old man's little delicate frame was shaken by a surprise and joy that were almost painful in their intensity. He had been going to ask forgiveness of her who asked it for herself In that moment of supreme complex emotion one ray of the minister's joy was the thought, "Surely the work of grace is begun in her — surely here is a heart that the Lord hath touched."