CHAPTER VII.
ELEANOR'S FLIGHT.
"And love the offender, yet detest the offence."
Pope.
"His rod revers'd.
And backward mutters of dissevering power."
Milton.
"A generous friendship no cold medium knows,
Burns with one love, with one resentment glows."
Pope.
In the serenity and light of that one loving deed Jonathan went joyfully many days. He said no more to Steve, and he did not speak to Sarah, but Steve felt his good-will, and Sarah sung at her work, and looked happy and hopeful again. As it drew near to Christmas, Eleanor wrote confidently of her return to Yorkshire, and as she made fewer complaints, Jonathan trusted she was beginning to find that peace was better than strife.
But while the Askes were lingering in Paris, Eleanor gave birth to her first child, and the necessary delay was prolonged by the sudden
