I have done wrong to permit this affair to go
so far without protest, but I did not comprehend my own feelings clearly
until to-night. I merely drifted without realizing the danger, and now
the shock of discovery leaves me almost helpless. I realize distinctly
only one thing--I can not, I will not, marry you.
"Do these words seem cruel, unjust?" she went on, strangely calm.
"Perhaps they are, yet it is surely better for me to speak them now than
to wreck both our lives by remaining silent longer. You came to me a
year ago, Captain Le Gaire, at a time when I was particularly lonely,
and susceptible to kindness. You were an officer in the army, fighting
for a cause I loved, and your friendly attentions were very welcome. My
father liked you, and we were constantly thrown together. I have lived
rather a secluded life, here on this plantation since my school days,
meeting few men of my own station, and still young enough to be
romantic. I thought I loved you, and perhaps the feeling I cherished
might have truly become love had you always remained the same
considerate gentleman I first believed you to be. Instead, little by
little, I have been driven away, hurt by your coarseness, your lack of
chivalry, until now, when it comes to the supreme test, I find my soul
in revolt.
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