It had been merely a mutual
mistake; they had both mistaken the affection which grows out of
familiar association, for the love that instantly draws a man and a
woman together, though they may never before have seen one another, and
holds them forever, away from all the rest of the world.
"I know the difference now," she said several days later, with a deeper
tint in her cheeks and a brighter light in her blue eyes. "And I am sure
that William does, too. It's plain enough that he will be glad to be
free, but he cannot say so, because he is a gentleman. Don't you see?
For that very reason, just because he is so high-minded, I am all the
more bound to do what is right. You do see, don't you?"
He was sitting up for the first time that day, his chair was by the
window and she was sewing beside him.
"I see what you think is right," Paul said smilingly. "And he certainly
should be told at once. But perhaps I might--"
"Oh, no! I must tell him myself. That would only be treating him with
due respect. And William thinks a great deal of respect--much more than
he does of love.
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