The will may be ours, but something, we know not what,
interposes to defeat our best efforts. That you have succeeded in
producing so blessed a result, after we had failed, has served to deepen
and widen in our hearts the love we already felt for you; for how much
more precious is this melody of repose, this sweet interval of relief
from cruel pain the mother now experiences, than many melodies from
clear voices and trained hands."
In my secret heart I believed that he was taking much too lofty a view
of the matter; but I had no desire to argue against so flattering a
delusion, if it were one, and only wished that I could share it with
him.
"She is sleeping still," he said presently, "perhaps without pain, like
Yoletta here, and her sleep will now probably last for some hours."
"I pray Heaven that she may wake refreshed and free from pain," I
remarked.
He seemed surprised at my words, and looked searchingly into my face.
"My son," he said, "it grieves me, at a moment like the present, to have
to point out a great error to you; but it is an error hurtful to
yourself and painful to those who see it, and if I were to pass it over
in silence, or put off speaking of it to another time, I should not be
fulfilling the part of a loving father towards you.
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