Poor Ellen indulged in no girlish
resistance, no pretty little comedy of alarm and surprise, but
surrendered her pale lips to the hateful salute with the resignation of a
martyr. It was better that she should suffer this than that her father
should go to gaol. That thought was never absent from her mind. Nor was
this sacrifice to filial duty quite free from the leaven of selfishness.
For her own sake, as much as for her father's, Ellen Carley would have
submitted to any penalty rather than disgrace. To have him branded as a
thief must needs be worse suffering than any life-long penance she might
endure in matrimony. To lose Frank Randall's love was less than to let
him learn her father's guilt.
"The daughter of a thief!" she said to herself. "How he would despise
himself for having ever loved me, if he knew me to be that!"
CHAPTER XXXVI.
COMING ROUND.
Possessed with a thorough distrust of Mr. Medler and only half satisfied
as to the fact of Marian's safety, Gilbert Fenton lost no time in seeking
professional aid in the work of investigating this perplexing social
mystery. He went once more to the metropolitan detective who had been
with him in Hampshire, and whose labours there had proved so futile. The
task now to be performed seemed easy enough. Mr. Proul (Proul was the
name of the gentleman engaged by Gilbert) had only to discover the
whereabouts of Percival Nowell; a matter of no great difficulty, Gilbert
imagined, since it was most likely that Marian's father had frequent
personal communication with the lawyer; nor was it improbable that he
would have business with his agent or representative, Mr.
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