Her face was pallid, her lips tight-clenched, and shame unutterable gripped her.

To be sure, Lawler had enjoined her father to silence, and it was evident that she was not to know.

Still, she did know; and Lawler had added an obligation, a debt, to the already high barrier that was between them.

Yet she dared not evade the obligation, for that would be robbing her father of a chance over which he seemed to exult, a chance which promised the reformation, for which she had prayed.
Her heart was like lead within her--a dull weight that threatened to drag her down.

And yet she felt a pulse of thankfulness.