now this, that you have suffered; and I
should like very much to be able to console you or make you happier."

"You have done very much for me," said Zillah, looking at him with
deep emotion.

"Nothing, as far as I am concerned; but it is pleasant to me to know
that any thing which I have done is grateful to you," said Obed,
calmly and benignantly. "Keep your secret to yourself, my dear child.
You came to me from the sea; and I only hope that you will continue
with me as long as you can to brighten my life, and let me hear your
voice and see your face. And that is a simple wish. Is it not, my
child?"

"You are overwhelming me with your goodness," said Zillah, with
another grateful glance.

She was most grateful for the way in which Obed had given up his idea
of matrimony. Had he shown the excitement of a disappointed lover,
then there would have been a dark future before her. She would have
had to leave his family, among whom she had found a home. But Obed
showed nothing of this kind. He himself said that, if he could not
have her as a wife, he would be satisfied to have her as a daughter.
And when he learned that she was married, he at once took up the
paternal attitude, and the affection which he expressed was that
tender yet calm feeling which might become a father. At the
expression of such a feeling as this Zillah's generous and loving
heart responded, and all her nature warmed beneath its genial
influence. Yes, she would be to him as a daughter; she would show him
all the gratitude and devotion of which she was capable. Under such
circumstances as these her life could go on as it had before, and the
interview of to-day would not cast the slightest shadow over the
sunshine of the future. So she felt, and so she said.

Obed took pains to assure her over and over again how entirely he had
sunk all considerations of himself in his regard for her, and that
the idea of making her his wife was not more precious than that of
making her his daughter.

"It was to have you near me," said he, "to make you happy, to give
you a home which should be all yours; but this can be done in another
and a better way, my child: so I am content, if you are."

Before they left the place Zillah gave him, in general terms, an
outline of her secret, without mentioning names and places. She said
that she was married when very young, that her father had died, that
the man to whom she had been married disliked her, and she had not
seen