"Mary!" And Mary went. Kate sat up, holding Sylvia's hand.
They heard him ask, "Is Kate there?"
"Yes." And then there were lower voices that Kate could not hear,
and which therefore alarmed her; and Sylvia, puzzled and frightened,
sat holding her hand, listening silently.
Presently Mr. Wardour came in; and his look was graver than his tone;
but it was so pitying, that in a moment Kate flew to his breast, and
as he held her in his arms she cried, "O Papa! Papa! I have found
you again! you will not turn me away."
"I must do whatever may be right, my dear child," said Mr. Wardour,
holding her close, so that she felt his deep love, though it was not
an undoubting welcome. "I will hear all about it when you have
rested, and then I may know what is best to be done."
"Oh! keep me, keep me, Papa."
"You will be here to-morrow at least," he said, disengaging himself
from her. "This is a terrible proceeding of yours, Kate, but it is
no time for talking of it; and as your aunts know where you are,
nothing more can be done at present; so we will wait to understand it
till you are rested and composed."
He went away; and Kate remained sobered and confused, and Mary stood
looking at her, sad and perplexed.
"O Kate! Kate!" she said, "what have you been doing?"
"What is the matter? Are not you glad?" cried Sylvia; and the
squeeze of her hand restored Kate's spirits so much that she broke
forth with her story, told in her own way, of persecution and escape,
as she had wrought herself up to believe in it; and Sylvia clung to
her, with flushed cheeks and ardent eyes, resenting every injury that
her darling detailed, triumphing in her resistance, and undoubting
that here she would be received and sheltered from all; while Mary,
distressed and grieved, and cautioned by her father to take care not
to show sympathy that might be mischievous, was carried along in
spite of herself to admire and pity her child, and burn with
indignation at such ill-treatment, almost in despair at the idea that
the child must be sent back again, yet still not discarding that
trust common to all Mr.
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