Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/276

266 how the Allisons had been shunned, the hints he had heard but not heeded, the strong opposition of his friends to his evident attraction for the younger Miss Allison. His parents knew nothing yet. "I can never marry Lucy." He drew his breath in as though it were his last. "I can never marry Lucy."

He looked hard into the thin refined face before him. He thought of Lucy's father, the proud man with the face of a Washington. He fell on his knees beside Mrs. Allison, laid his head in her lap.

"Mother," he said softly, "Virginia is very dear and very sweet, but she is not Lucy's sister, not your child."

Mrs. Allison trembled from head to foot A son's head upon her lap—little Lucy's husband. Was Lucy's life to be spoiled for ever, was scandal always to be busy at their doors? She was so tired of it. The suspicions, questions, hints, could be ended so easily; it would leave pretty Lucy free. If George married her, suspicions would cease. Virginia—it would be the same to Virginia; it would not hurt her. She turned from the young man and spoke like one dying,—