God's blessing goes forth from children like you--it has fallen upon
me--it has raised me from the dead! My Antonina shall teach me to
worship, as I once taught her. She shall pray for me in the morning,
and pray for me at night; and when she thinks not of it, when she
sleeps, I shall come softly to her bedside, and wait and watch over her,
so that when she opens her eyes they shall open on me--they are the eyes
of my child who has been restored to me--there is nothing on earth that
can speak to me like them of happiness and peace!'
He paused for a moment, and looked rapturously on her face as it was
turned towards him. His features partially saddened while he gazed, and
taking her long hair, still wet and dishevelled from the rain, in his
hands, he pressed it over his lips, over his face, over his neck. Then,
when he saw that she was endeavouring to speak, when he beheld the tears
that were now filling her eyes, he drew her closer to him, and hurriedly
continued in lower tones--
'Hush! hush! No more grief, no more tears! Tell me not whither you
have wandered--speak not of what you have suffered; for would not every
word be a reproach to me? And you have come to pardon and not to
reproach! Let not the recollection that it was I who cast you off be
forced on me from your lips; let us remember only that we are restored
to each other; let us think that God has accepted my penitence and
forgiven me my sin, in suffering my child to return! Or, if we must
speak of the days of separation that are past, speak to me of the days
that found you tranquil and secure; rejoice me by telling me that it was
not all danger and woe in the bitter destiny which my guilty anger
prepared for my own child! Say to me that you met protectors as well as
enemies in the hour of your flight--that all were not harsh to you as I
was--that those of whom you asked shelter and safety looked on your face
as on a petition for charity and kindness from friends whom they loved!
Tell me only of your protectors, Antonina, for in that there will be
consolation; and you have come to console!'
As he waited for her reply he felt her tremble on his bosom, he saw the
shudder that ran over her frame.
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