"
There was a ghastly hue upon her face, and her features looked pinched
and rigid, but the terrible heart-beats were not there. God, in his
great mercy, kept them back, else she had surely died under that
strong excitement. Thornton thought she was fainting, and, going
hastily to her side, passed his arm around her and put her in the
chair; then, standing protectingly by her, he said just what first
came into his mind to say. It was a delicate matter in which to
interfere, and he handled it carefully, telling frankly of what had
passed between himself and Anna, and giving it as his opinion that she
loved Arthur to-day just as well as before she left Hanover.
"Then, if that is so and Arthur loves her, as I know he does, it is
surely right for them to marry, and they must," Lucy exclaimed,
vehemently, while Thornton laid his hand pityingly upon her head and
said:
"And only you be sacrificed?"
There was something wondrously tender in the tone of Thornton's voice,
and Lucy glanced quickly up at him, while her blue eyes filled with
the first tears she had shed since she came into that room.
"I am willing--I am ready--I have made up my mind and I shall never
revoke it," she answered, while Arthur again put in a feeble
remonstrance.
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