That thought was never absent from her mind.

Nor was this sacrifice to filial duty quite free from the leaven of selfishness.
For her own sake, as much as for her father's, Ellen Carley would have submitted to any penalty rather than disgrace.

To have him branded as a thief must needs be worse suffering than any life-long penance she might endure in matrimony.

To lose Frank Randall's love was less than to let him learn her father's guilt.
"The daughter of a thief!" she said to herself.

"How he would despise himself for having ever loved me, if he knew me to be that!".