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"There was a small bundle in her hand." "Strange strange very strange," murmured the old man to himself. "What does it mean? Where can she have gone?" "Did she say nothing about going away?" "Nothing nothing!" Mr. Lofton's eyes fell to the floor, and he sat thinking for some moments. "Mr. Jones," said he, at length, "can you go to New York for me?" "I suppose so," replied Mr. Jones.
When I do get home, I know you will approve of what I have done. My errand is one of Mercy. "Humbly and faithfully yours, JENNY." It was some time before Mr. Lofton's mind grew calm and clear, after reading this note. That Jenny's absence was, in some way, connected with Mark, was a thought that soon presented itself.
The swell of emotion went deeper, and the activity of her mind took a still higher character. It was plain to her, when she next came into Mr. Lofton's presence, that his thoughts had been busy about the letter she had received. But he asked her no questions, and, faithful to the expressed wish of Mark, she made no reference to the subject whatever.
She would have preferred going alone; but fearing that, if she parted even thus briefly from Mark, her strong influence over him, by means of which she had brought him, almost as a struggling prisoner, thus far, would be weakened, and be tempted to turn from the house, she resolved to venture upon the experiment of entering Mr. Lofton's sick chamber, in company with his grandson.
His daughter Jenny had been happy in her marriage, but the union never gave him much satisfaction. She was to have been the wife of one more distinguished than a mere plodding money-making merchant. Painful was the shock that accompanied the prostration of old Mr. Lofton's ambitious hopes touching his grandson, of whom he had always been exceedingly fond.
At last she stood in front of him. "What made you come to-day?" she asked. Her large restless eyes looked full of anger as she spoke. "I came to-day partly because I am going away very soon, so I thought that it might be " He hesitated. "But where are you going?" Molly asked abruptly. "I am to take a chaplaincy at Lord Lofton's." "And your preaching?" cried Molly in astonishment.
Mark stepped in as he spoke, and took a chair in the neat little sitting room into which the door opened. "She has gone over to Mr. Lofton's," said the girl, in reply, "and won't be back for an hour." "Has she, indeed? Then you know Mr. Lofton?" "Oh, yes. We know him very well. He owns our little cottage." "Does he! No doubt you find him a good landlord."
Lofton's anger cooled, and he felt that he had suffered himself to be misled by a hasty judgment. That no evil had been in the young man's mind he was sure. It was this change that had prompted him to make an effort to recall him. But, the effort was fruitless. On Jenny's return home, after her last interview with Mark, she found a servant there with a summons from Mr. Lofton.
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