He held his place by the
bedside resolutely, and insisted on sharing Marian's watch that night. So
all through the long night those two sat together, while the old man
passed from uneasy slumber to more uneasy wakefulness, and back to
troubled sleep again, his breathing growing heavier and more laboured
with every hour. They were very quiet, and could have found but little to
say to each other, had there been no reason for their silence. That first
brief impulsive feeling of affection past, Marian could only think of
this newly-found father as the man who had made her mother's life lonely
and wretched while he pursued his own selfish pleasures; and who had
allowed her to grow to womanhood without having been the object of one
thought or care upon his part. She could not forget these things, as she
sat opposite to him in the awful silence of the sick-room, stealing a
glance at his face now and then, and wondering at the strange turn of
fortune which had brought them thus together.
It was not a pleasant face by any means--not a countenance to inspire
love or confidence. Handsome still, but with a faded look, like a face
that had grown pallid and wrinkled in the feverish atmosphere of vicious
haunts--under the flaring gas that glares down upon the green cloth of a
rouge-et-noir table, in the tumult of crowded race-courses, the press and
confusion of the betting-ring--it was the face of a battered _roue_, who
had lived his life, and outlived the smiles of fortune; the face of a man
to whom honest thoughts and hopes had long been unknown.
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