"Poor child! Now I've brought the tears. I was determined to get that
dead look out of your eyes that was beginning to come to-night. It shall
go away to-night and you shall not awake with it in the morning. Do you
know what you want? Do you want to tell me what you pray about on your
wedding day?"
"Yes, and you can pray with me to-morrow. I always ask repentance and
remission of sins for him and for myself that I may see him once more
and make him believe that I have forgiven him."
"Did you ever wish that you had been his wife and might have shared his
exile?"
"Not at first; I was too indignant; I did not forgive him, at first; but
since I have wished it; I know he has needed me."
"But he threw you off."
"No, he would not let me share his disgrace."
"He did not love you well enough to keep the disgrace from you, it
seems," said John Holmes, bitterly.
"No, I could not keep him from sin. The love of a woman is not the love
of God. I failed as many a woman has failed. But I did not desert him; I
went--but he would not see me."
"He was sorry afterward, he tried to write to you, but he always broke
down and could not go on; you were so young and he had been a shame to
you."
"You never told me this before."
"Because I hated him, I hated my brother, for disgracing you and
disgracing my mother and myself; I have grown forgiving since, since God
has forgiven me. He said that last day that you must not forget him."
"He knew I would not forget," said Miss Prudence, proudly.
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