They walked silently along the little path under the sunlit shade of the fruit-trees. Mary stopped at a turning.
“Yes; that is encouraging. Reminds one of Emerson and optimism. Peter did find you.” Her large clear eyes looked an exhortation into Hilda’s. “Peter found you, my dear child; let Peter keep you, then.”
“He always will keep—what he found,” said Hilda, trembling. “I love him. I shall always love him.”
“My dear Hilda!”
“But I cannot marry him. I cannot.”
“You are a foolish little Hilda.”
“We made Katherine miserable.”
“And therefore all three must be miserable. For Peter to have kept faith with Katherine—loving you—might have called down a far worse tragedy.”
Hilda gazed widely at her—
“Yes; I deserve that suspicion.”