"I recollect!" he repeated, just as before. "It was upon the back
piazza at Ridgeley, after breakfast on that warm September morning,
when the air was a silvery haze, and there was no dew upon the
roses. I, too, have grown older--I trust, wiser and stronger since I
talked so largely of my career--what I hoped to be and to do. When
did you see her--Miss Aylett," abruptly, and with a total change of
manner.
"The Rubicon is forded," thought Rosa, complacently, the while her
compassion for him was sincere and strong. "He can never shut his
heart inexorably against me after this."
Aloud, she replied after an instant's hesitation designed to prepare
him for what was to follow--"I was with Mabel for several days last
May. We have not met since."
"She is alive--and well?" he asked, anxiously.
An inexplicable something in her manner warned him that all was not
right.
"She is--or was, when I last heard news of her; we do not
correspond. She does not live at Ridgeley now."
There she stopped, before adding the apex to the nicely graduated
climax.
"Not live with her brother! I do not understand."
"Have you not heard of her marriage?"
"No!"
He did not reel or tremble, but she felt that the bolt had pierced a
vital part, and wisely forbore to offer consolation he could not
hear.
But when he would have parted with her at the door of her uncle's
parlor, she saw how deadly pale he was, and put her hands into his,
beseechingly.
"Come in! I cannot let you go until you have said that you forgive
me!"
There were tears in her eyes, and in her coaxing accents, and he
yielded to the gentle face that sought to lead him into the room. It
was fearful agony that contracted his forehead and lips when he
would have spoken reassuringly, and they were drops of genuine
commiseration that drenched the girl's cheeks while she listened.
"I have nothing to forgive you! You have been all kindness and
consideration--I ought not to have asked questions, but I believed
myself when I boasted of my strength. I thought the bitterness of
the heart's death had passed. Now, I know I never despaired before!
Great Heavens! how I loved that woman! and this is the end!"
He walked to the other side of the room.
Rosa durst not follow him even with her eyes. She sat, her face
concealed by her handkerchief, weeping many tears for him--more for
herself, until she heard his step close beside her, and he seated
himself upon her sofa.