He followed her for a
week, and at the end of that time asked her hand in marriage.
Even after he had heard the story of her life, he was not deterred
from his resolve to make her his wife. All the Christian charity of
his nature, all its chivalry was aroused, and he believed he was
plucking a brand from the burning. He never repented his act. He
lived wholly for his wife and child, and for the good he could do
with them as his faithful allies. He drew more and more away from
all the allurements of the world, and strove to rear Joy in what he
believed to be a purely Christian life, and to make his wife forget,
if possible, that she had ever known a sorrow. All of sincere
gratitude, tenderness, and gentle affection possible for her to feel,
Berene bestowed upon her husband during his life, and gave to his
memory after he was gone.
Joy had been excessively fond of Mr Irving, and it was the dread of
causing her a deep sorrow in the knowledge that she was not his
child, and the fear that Preston Cheney would in any way interfere
with her possession of Joy, which had distressed the mother during
the visit of the Baroness, rather than unwillingness to have her sin
revealed to her daughter. Added to this, the intrusion of the
Baroness into this long hidden and sacred experience seemed a
sacrilege from which she shrank with horror.
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