"No--no!" she protested--too vehemently. "I do NOT regret marrying
him. That was certain to be sooner or later. All I regret is that I
did something that seems underhanded. Perhaps I'm really only sorry I
didn't tell them as soon as I'd done it."
She waited until she saw he was not going to speak. "And now," she
said, "I don't know HOW to tell them." Again she waited, but he did
not speak, continued to look steadily out into the sky. "What do you
think?" she asked nervously. "But I can see without your saying. Only
I--wish you'd SAY it."
"No, I don't condemn you," he said slowly. "I know you. YOU couldn't
possibly do anything underhanded. If you'd been where you'd have had
to conceal it directly, face to face, from some one who had the right
to know--you'd never have done it." He rested his arms on the table
and looked straight at her. "I feel I must tell you what I think. And
I feel, too, it wouldn't be fair and honest if I didn't let you see why
you might not want to take my advice."
She returned his gaze inquiringly.
"I love you," he went on calmly. "I've known it ever since I missed
you so at the Christmas holidays. I love you for what you are, and for
what you're as certain to be as--as a rosebud is certain to be a
full-blown rose. I love you as my father loved my mother. I shall
love you always." His manner was calm, matter-of-fact; but there was
in his musical, magical voice a certain quality which set her nerves
and her blood suddenly to vibrating. She felt as if she were
struggling in a great sea--the sea of his love for her--struggling to
reach the safety of the shore.
"Oh--I WISH you hadn't told me!" she exclaimed.
"Suppose I hadn't; suppose you had taken my advice? No"--he shook his
head slowly--"I couldn't do that, Pauline--not even to win you."
"I'm sorry I said anything to you about it."
"You needn't be. You haven't harmed yourself. And maybe I can help
you."
"No--we won't talk of it," she said--she was pressing her hand on her
bosom where she could feel her wedding ring. "It wouldn't be right,
now. I don't wish your advice."
"But I must give it. I'm years and years older than you--many, many
years more than the six between us. And----"
"I don't wish to hear."
"For his sake, for your own sake, Pauline, tell them! And they'll
surely help you to wait till you're older before you do
anything--irrevocable."
"But I care for him," she said--angrily, though it could not have been
what he was saying so gently that angered her. "You forget that I care
for him. It IS irrevocable now. And I'm glad it is!"
"You LIKE him. You don't LOVE him. And--he's not worthy of your love.
I'm sure it isn't prejudice that makes me say it. If he were, he'd
have waited----"
She was on her feet, her eyes blazing.
"I asked for advice, not a lecture. I DESPISE you! Attacking the man
I love and behind his back! I wish to be alone."
He rose but met her look without flinching.
"You can send ME away," he said gently, "but you can't send away my
words. And if they're true you'll feel them when you get over your
anger. You'll do what you think right. But--be SURE, Pauline. Be
SURE!" In his eyes there was a look--the secret altar with the
never-to-be-extinguished flame upon it. "Be SURE!, Pauline. Be SURE."
Her anger fell; she sank, forlorn, into a chair. For both, the day had
shriveled and shadowed. And as he turned and left the room the warmth
and joy died from air and sky and earth; both of them felt the latent
chill--it seemed not a reminiscence of winter past but the icy
foreboding of winter closing in.
When Olivia came back that evening from shopping in Indianapolis she
found her cousin packing.
"Is it something from home?" she asked, alarmed.
Pauline did not look up as she answered:
"No--but I'm going home--to stay--going in the morning. I've
telegraphed them."
"To stay!"
"Yes--I was married to Jack--here--last fall."
"You--married! To JOHN DUMONT--you, only seventeen--oh, Pauline--"
And Olivia gave way to tears for the first time since she was a baby.
Scarborough was neither at supper nor at breakfast--Pauline left
without seeing him again.