“So she has come to tell her dear kinspeople that she must let the fortune go. The houses and lands, the streams and forests, are dear to her, but they are not so dear as liberty. No, not nearly so dear. But there is one thing that is dear to her beyond words, and that is the love of her kinspeople, and that she never means to let go if she can hold on to it. Whatever the cords are that tied them and her together, she wants to make stronger and faster, for as long as she lives she will love them and be grateful to them.
“Yet she must be free. Will they understand, and forgive?”
Then I cried. I said I wouldn’t, that I mustn’t; but I did. Not with sobs. No, but those miserable tears simply poured out of my eyes over my cheeks and I couldn’t stop them. And Aunt Lorena cried, too. Only she cried slowly. She sat with her long hands clasped and let the big, lazy tears roll down her cheeks. As for Uncle David, he grew red and then white, and for what seemed a long time I stood there, waiting, until after a long time Uncle David said:
“Come to me, child,” and I went to him, and kneeled down by him, and he brushed back my hair and kissed me on the forehead.
“You were never,” he said in a voice that trembled a little, “so true a Knox as you are to-day, my dear.”
Oh, Carin, wasn’t that beautiful? I had been afraid of his disapproval, but now I seemed, in a way I cannot describe, almost more afraid of his approval. It was hard for me to stand his kindness when I had been so determined to go my way.
Then I heard Aunt Lorena talking, but for a moment or two my heart and brain were in such an uproar that I could not really make out what she was saying. But at last the words got through to me.
“We know, Azalea, many things which you, perhaps, do not give us credit for knowing. We know that you are full of ambition and that the life here seems meaningless to you. Life has trained you in a different school from what it has us. We believe if you had waited, you would have come to see opportunities for great good in this life here, but since it truly does not appeal to you, I for one think you ought to be allowed to go your way and live the life you like. I know—we know—that there lies behind this resolution your determination to have a free choice in other matters than your vocation. Am I not right in this?”
“Yes,” I said, and found the courage to look straight into her eyes.
“I do not blame you,” she said. “I married the man I loved, and I believe every woman should do that if she can.”