n angry father? Go, I shall read no more----

WAITWELL.

Ah, Miss! You will pardon an old servant! Yes, truly, I believe it is
the first time in my life that I have intentionally deceived any one.
He who deceives once, Miss, and deceives for so good a purpose, is
surely no old deceiver on that account. That touches me deeply, Miss! I
know well that the good intention does not always excuse one; but what
else could I do? To return his letter unread to such a good father?
That certainly I cannot do! Sooner will I walk as far as my old legs
will carry me, and never again come into his presence.

SARA.

What? You too will leave him?

WAITWELL.

Shall I not be obliged to do so if you do not read the letter? Read it,
pray! Do not grudge a good result to the first deceit with which I have
to reproach myself. You will forget it the sooner, and I shall the
sooner be able to forgive myself. I am a common, simple man, who must
not question the reasons why you cannot and will not read the letter.
Whether they are true, I know not, but at any rate they do not appear
to me to be natural. I should think thus, Miss: a father, I should
think, is after all a father; and a child may err for once, and remain
a good child in spite of it. If the father pardons the error, the child
may behave again in such a manner that the father may not even think of
it any more. For who likes to remember what he would rather had never
happened? It seems, Miss, as if you thought only of your error, and
believed you atoned sufficiently in exaggerating it in your imagination
and tormenting yourself with these exaggerated ideas. But, I should
think, you ought also to consider how you could make up for what has
happened. And how will you make up for it, if you deprive yourself of
every opportunity of doing so. Can it be hard for you to take the
second step, when such a good father has already taken the first?

SARA.

What daggers pierce my heart in your simple words! That he has to take
the first step is just what I cannot bear. And, besides, is it only the
first step which he takes? He must do all! I cannot take a single one
to meet him. As far as I have gone from him, so far must he descend to
me. If he pardons me, he must pardon the whole crime, and in addition
must bear the consequences of it continually before his eyes. Ca