Chapter 13
It is best we should not attempt to depict the grief of the Hudelson family and Francis Gordon. Certainly, had Francis been free in his actions, he would not have hesitated to break with his uncle, to brave the latter’s anger and its consequences. But what he might have been able to do against Mr. Dean Forsyth’s wishes he could not against Dr. Hudelson’s. In vain had Mrs. Hudelson tried to obtain her husband’s consent, and Loo had added her prayers, coaxings, and tears. Nothing had moved the obstinate doctor. And now both the uncle and the father had started for foreign parts.
Yet how useless this double departure was! How useless also the divorce of Mr. Seth Stanfort and Miss Arcadia Walker, determined by the two astronomers’ affirmations. If these four people had only waited
