She took from her bosom the St. Nicholas ribbon. "I give it to thee again. At the first time I loved thee; now, my husband, ten thousand times more I love thee. As I went through the papers, I found it. So much it said to me of thy true love! So sweetly for thee it pleaded! All that it asks for thee, I give. All that thou hast done wrong to me, it forgives."
And between their clasped hands it lay,—the bit of orange ribbon that had handselled all their happiness.
"It is the promise of everything I can give thee, my loved one," whispered Katherine.
"It is the luck of Richard Hyde. Dearest wife, thou hast given me my life back again."
XV.
"Wise men ne'er sit and wail their woes,
But presently prevent the ways to wail."
It was a hot August afternoon; and the garden at Hyde Manor was full of scent in all its shady places,—hot lavender, seductive carnation, the secretive intoxication of the large white lilies, and mingling with them the warm smell of ripe fruits from the raspberry hedges, and the apricots and plums turning gold and purple upon the southern walls.