"Isobel!" I said hoarsely--"Isobel, forgive me! I was a cad, a
villain ... to _him_. But--it was inevitable. Try to forget that
I was so weak. But, Isobel--"
I felt her hand trembling on my arm.
"We must _both_ try to forget, Jack," she whispered.
I grasped her hands and looked eagerly--indeed I think wildly--into
her eyes.
"Because my life is over if I lose you," I said, "I suppose I was mad
for a moment. Tell me that one day--when it is fit and proper that you
should do so--you will give me a hearing, and I will perform any
penance you choose. I acted like a blackguard."
"Stop!" she commanded softly.
She raised her eyes, and her grave, sweet glance cooled the fever
which consumed me and brought a great and abiding peace to my heart.
"You were no more to blame than I!" she said. "And because--I
understand, it is not hard to forgive. I don't try to excuse myself,
but even if--_he_--had lived, I could never have gone on with it,
after his ... suspicions. Oh, Jack! why did you leave me to make that
awful mistake?"
"My dearest," I replied, "God knows I have suffered for it."
"Please," she said, and her voice faltered, "help me to be fair to ...
_him_. Never--never--speak to me again--like that ... until--"
But the sentence was never completed; for at this moment in bustled
Aunt Alison--in appearance a white-haired, rosy-faced little matron,
very brisk in her movements and very shrewd-eyed.
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