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226 |
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. |
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so real and so true about me, as she is. If I could be restored to sight this instant, and not a word were spoken, I could choose her from a crowd ! My sister !"
"Bertha, my dear!" said Caleb, "I have something on my mind I want to tell you, while we three are alone. Hear me kindly! I have a confession to make to you, my Darling."
" A confession, father ?"
" I have wandered from the Truth and lost myself, my child," said Caleb, with a pitiable expression in his bewildered face. " I have wandered from the Truth, intending to be kind to you; and have been cruel."
She turned her wonder-stricken face towards him, and repeated " Cruel!"
"He accuses himself too strongly, Bertha," said Dot. "You'll say so, presently. You'll be the first to tell him so."
" He cruel to me !" cried Bertha, with a smile of incredulity.
" Not meaning it, my child," said Caleb. " But I have been ; though I never suspected it, till yesterday. My dear Blind Daughter, hear me and forgive me ! The world you live in, heart of mine, doesn't exist as I have represented it. The eyes you have trusted in, have been false to you."
She turned her wonder-stricken face towards him still; but drew back, and clung closer to her friend.
" Your road in life was rough, my poor one," said Caleb, " and I meant to smooth it for you. I have altered objects, changed the characters of people, invented many things that never have been, to make you happier. I have had concealments from you, put deceptions on you, God forgive me ! and surrounded you with fancies."
" But living people are not fancies ?" she said hurriedly, and turning very pale, and still retiring from him. " You can't change them."
"I have done so, Bertha," pleaded Caleb. "There is one person that you know, my Dove------"
"Oh father! why do you say, I know?" she answered, in a tone of keen reproach. " What and whom do I know ! I who have no leader ! I so miserably blind ! "
In the anguish of her heart, she stretched out her hands, as if she were groping her way; then spread them, in a manner most forlorn and sad, upon her face.
" The marriage that takes place to-day," said Caleb, " is with a stern, sordid, grinding man. A hard master to you and me, my dear, for many years. Ugly in his looks, and in his nature. Cold and callous always. Unlike what I have painted him to you in everything, my child. In everything." |
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