Her solicitude for Helen was not less than theirs for their son;
and she felt the girl might need both motherly care and counsel.
She was opposed even more strenuously than her husband to any
committal on the daughter's part to her old lover unless he should
become beyond all doubt his former self. At best, it would be a
heavy cross to give up Martine, who had won her entire affection.
Helen's heart presented a problem too deep for solution. What
would--what could--Captain Nichol be to her child in his present
condition, should it continue?
It was but natural, therefore, that she and her husband should
listen to Helen's effort to awaken memories of the past with
profound anxiety. How far would she go? If Nichol were able to
respond with no more appreciative intelligence than he had thus
far manifested, would a sentiment of pity and obligation carry her
to the point of accepting him as he was, of devoting herself to
one who, in spite of all their commiseration and endeavors to
tolerate, might become a sort of horror in their household! It was
with immense relief that they heard her falter in her story, for
they quickly divined that there was nothing in him which responded
to her effort.
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