I thank God that Mrs.
Holbrook is safe, for I suppose I must accept your assurance that she is
so; but until her position is relieved from all this secrecy, I shall not
cease to feel uneasy as to her welfare. I am glad, however, that the
issue of events has exonerated her husband from any part in her
disappearance."
He was glad to know this--glad to know that however base a traitor to
himself, John Saltram had not been guilty of that deeper villany which he
had at times been led to suspect. Gilbert Fenton left Mr. Medler's office
a happier man than when he had entered it, and yet only half satisfied.
It was a great thing to know that Marian was safe; but he would have
wished her in the keeping of any one rather than of him whom the world
would have called her natural protector.
Nor was his opinion of Mr. Medler by any means an exalted one. No
assertion, of that gentleman inspired him with heart-felt confidence; and
he had not left the lawyer's office long before he began to ask himself
whether there was truth in any portion of the story he had heard, or
whether he was not the dupe of a lie.
Strange that Marian's father should have returned at so opportune a
moment; still more strange that Marian should suddenly desert the husband
she had so devotedly loved, and cast in her lot with a father of whom she
knew nothing but his unkindness.
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