All the
responses had been made by Lawson, and now the clergyman addressed
her. Passively she was about uttering her assentation, when the door
of the room was thrown open, and two men entered.
"Stop!" was instantly cried in a loud, agitated voice, which
Caroline knew to be that of her father, and never did that voice
come to her ears with a more welcome sound.
Lawson started, and moved from her side. While Caroline yet stood
trembling and doubting, the man who had come in with Mr. Everett
approached Lawson, and laying his hand upon him, said--"I arrest you
on a charge of swindling!"
With a low cry of distress, Caroline sprung towards her father; but
he held his hands out towards her as if to keep her off, saying, at
the same time--
"Are you his wife?"
"No, thank Heaven!" fell from her lips.
In the next moment she was in her father's arms, and both were
weeping.
Narrow indeed was the escape made by Caroline Everett; an escape
which she did not fully comprehend until a few months afterwards,
when the trial of Lawson took place, during which revelations of
villany were made, the recital of which caused her heart to shudder.
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