Though the marriage might be, and no doubt was, a perfectly legal and
creditable marriage in the eye of the world, still, in the eyes of
honest men, it would be deemed altogether unworthy and unfortunate, and
he knew the minister would think it so. How could he tell the poor old
father, who had so generously given up his only daughter for the one
simple reason--sufficient reason for any righteous marriage--
"Helen loved him," that his new son-in-law was proved by proof
irresistible to be a deliberate liar, a selfish, scheming, mercenary
knave?
So, under this heavy responsibility, Lord Cairnforth decided to do what,
in minor matters, he had often noticed Helen do toward her gentle and
easily-wounded father--to lay upon him no burdens greater than he
could bear, but to bear them herself for him. And in this instance the
earl's only means of so doing, for the present at least, was by taking
refuge in that last haven of wounded love and cruel suffering--
silence.
The earl determined to maintain a silence unbroken as the grave
regarding all the past, and his own relations with Captain Bruce--
that is, until he saw the necessity for doing otherwise.
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