"Miss Warren," I said gravely, "that laugh isn't natural. I never heard you laugh so before. Something did happen."
A flash of lightning gleamed across the window, and the girl gave an involuntary and apprehensive start.
Almost as instantaneously the events I had forgotten passed through my mind. In strong and momentary excitement I rose on my elbow, and looked for their confirmation in her troubled face.
"Oh, forget—forget it all!" she exclaimed, in a low, distressed voice, and she came and stood before me with clasped hands.
"Would to God I had died!" I said, despairingly, and I sank back faint and crushed. "I had no right to speak—to think of you as I did. Good-by."
"Mr. Morton—"
"Please leave me now. I'm too weak to be a man, and I would not lose your esteem."
"But you will get well—you promised me that."
"Well!" I said, in a low, bitter tone. "When can I ever be well?
Good-by."
"Mr. Morton, would you blight my life?" she asked, almost indignantly.
"Am I to blame for this?"