Quill's Window by George Barr McCutcheon
page 36 of 363 (09%)
page 36 of 363 (09%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
same. She did not hate him. That was impossible. She had never seen
her parents, so she had not known the love of either. They did not belong in her life except through the sheerest imagination. Her grandfather was the only real thing she had had in life, and she had adored him. He had killed two people who were as nothing to her, but he had taken the place of both. How could she bring herself to hate this man who had destroyed what were no more than names to her? Father,--Mother! Two words,--that was all. And for twenty long years he had been paying,--Oh, how he must have paid! She recalled his reason for taking her to England when she was less than eight years old and leaving her there until she was twelve. She remembered that he had said he wanted her to be like her grandmother, to grow up among her people, to absorb from them all that had made the first Alix so strong and fine and true. And then he had come to take her from them, back to the land of her birth, because, he said, he wanted her to be like her mother, the second Alix,--an American woman. She recalled his bitter antipathy to co-educational institutions and his unyielding resolve that she should complete her schooling in a Sacred Heart Convent. She remembered the commotion this decision created among his neighbours. In her presence they had assailed him with the charge that he was turning the girl over, body and soul, to the Catholic Church, and he had uttered in reply the never to be forgotten words: "If I never do anything worse than that for her, I'll be damned well satisfied with my chance of getting into heaven as soon as the rest of you." When David's will was read, it was found that except for a few |
|