“And now you wonder why I gave him a meeting here?”
“I wonder at nothing but your courage and patience in all this
suffering!” said Blair fervently; “and at your forgiving me for so
cruelly misunderstanding you.”
“But you must learn all. When I first saw MacGlowrie under his assumed
name, I fainted, for I was terrified and believed he knew I was here
and had come to expose me even at his own risk. That was why I hesitated
between going away or openly defying him. But it appears he was more
frightened than I at finding me here--he had supposed I had changed my
name after the divorce, and that Mrs. MacGlowrie, Laurel Spring, was his
cousin's widow. When he found out who I was he was eager to see me
and agree upon a mutual silence while he was here. He thought only of
himself,” she added scornfully, “and Colonel Starbottle's recognition
of him that night as the convicted swindler was enough to put him to
flight.”
“And the colonel never suspected that you were his wife?” said Blair.
“Never! He supposed from the name that he was some relation of my
husband, and that was why he refused to tell it--for my sake. The
colonel is an old fogy--and pompous--but a gentleman--as good as they
make them!”
A slightly jealous uneasiness and a greater sense of shame came over
Blair.
“I seem to have been the only one who suspected and did not aid you,” he
said sadly, “and yet God knows”--
The widow had put up her slim hand in half-smiling, half-pathetic
interruption.
“Wait! I have not told you everything. When I took over the
responsibility of being Allen MacGlowrie's widow, I had to take over
HER relations and HER history as I gathered it from the frontiersmen. I
never frightened any grizzly--I never jabbed anybody with the scissors;
it was SHE who did it. I never was among the Injins--I never had any
fighting relations; my paw was a plain farmer. I was only a peaceful
Blue Grass girl--there! I never thought there was any harm in it; it
seemed to keep the men off, and leave me free--until I knew you! And you
know I didn't want you to believe it--don't you?”
She hid her flushed face and dimples in her handkerchief.
“But did you never think there might be another way to keep the men off,
and sink the name of MacGlowrie forever?” said Blair in a lower voice.
“I think we must be going back now,” said the widow timidly, withdrawing
her hand, which Blair had again mysteriously got possession of in her
confusion.
“But wait just a few minutes longer to keep me company,” said Blair
pleadingly. “I came here to see a patient, and as there must have been
some mistake in the message--I must try to discover it.”
“Oh! Is that all?” said the widow quickly. “Why?”--she flushed again and
laughed faintly--“Well! I am that patient! I wanted to see you alone to
explain everything, and I could think of no other way. I'm afraid I've
got into the habit of thinking nothing of being somebody else.”
“I wish you would let me select who you should be,” said the doctor
boldly.
“We really must go back--to the horses,” said the widow.
“Agreed--if we will ride home together.”
They did. And before the year was over, although they both remained, the
name of MacGlowrie had passed out of Laurel Spring.