You
must forget it, and if it ever crosses your mind think of it as something
with which you have no concern."
"How can I do that--now."
The last word slipped out not of her will, but from an undisciplined heart.
It stood for the whole tangled story of her troubles: the unloved marriage
which had bereft her of her heritage of youth and joy, the love that had
found her too late and was so poignant a fount of distress to her, the web
of untoward circumstance in which she was so inextricably entangled.
"How did you ever come to do it?" he asked roughly, out of the bitter
impulse of his heart.
She knew that the harshness was not for her, as surely as she knew what he
meant by his words.
"I did wrong. I know that now, but I didn't know it then. Though even then
I felt troubled about it. But my guardian said it was best, and I knew so
little. Oh, so very, very little. Why was I not taught things, what every
girl has a right to know--until life teaches me--too late?"
Nothing he could say would comfort her. For the inexorable facts forbade
consolation.
Pages:
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282