No suspicion that he
was the criminal seemed hitherto to have been excited in the mind of
any one. Added to these reasons was Jem's extreme unwillingness to
face him, with the belief in his breast that he, and none other, had
done the fearful deed.
It was true that he was Mary's father, and as such had every right
to be told of all concerning her; but supposing he were, and that he
followed the impulse so natural to a father, and wished to go to
her, what might be the consequences? Among the mingled feelings she
had revealed in her delirium, ay, mingled even with the most tender
expressions of love for her father, was a sort of horror of him; a
dread of him as a blood-shedder, which seemed to separate him into
two persons,--one, the father who had dandled her on his knee, and
loved her all her life long; the other, the assassin, the cause of
all her trouble and woe.
If he presented himself before her while this idea of his character
was uppermost, who might tell the consequence?
Jem could not, and would not, expose her to any such fearful chance:
and to tell the truth, I believe he looked upon her as more his own,
to guard from all shadow of injury with most loving care, than as
belonging to any one else in this world, though girt with the
reverend name of Father, and guiltless of aught that might have
lessened such reverence.
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