"Had I
never seen your face again it would have been the same. You were the
occasion; the thing I did had only one source, my own heart and mind.
There might have been another way; but for that way, or for the way I did
take, you could not be responsible."
"How generous you are!" Her eyes swam with tears; she leaned over the
table where he had been writing, and the tears dropped upon his letter.
Presently she realised this, and drew back, then made as though to dry
the tears from the paper with her handkerchief. As she did so the words
that he had written met her eye: "'But offences must come, and woe to him
from whom the offence cometh!' I have begun now, and only now, to feel
the storms that shake us to our farthest cells of life."
She became very still. He touched her arm and said heavily: "Come away,
come away."
She pointed to the words she had read. "I could not help but see, and now
I know what this must mean to you."
"Thee must go at once," he urged. "Thee should not have come. Thee was
safe--none knew. A few hours and it would all have been far behind.
Pages:
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165