“It was, and is, Miss Seabright, unless you give me the only good reason for staying.”
She advanced toward him, slowly, slowly, with averted face and deeply blushing cheek, laid both her hands in both of his, and murmured almost timidly:
“Stay, then, Dr. Hutton; I give up the estate.”
Hugh Hutton dropped his saddle-bags, drew her to his bosom and pressed her there, but spoke no word as yet.
“Yes, take me, Dr. Hutton! I am not worth much, bereft of all my glory, shorn,” she smiled faintly; “quite shorn of all my beams; but such as I am, you may have me, Dr. Hutton,” she murmured, dropping her head on his shoulder. Then, as he strained her to his bosom, the passion-fraught heart of the man found expression for its fullness of emotion in one “great heart-word”:
“My wife!”
“Yes, your wife,” she whispered, very softly, hiding her glowing face on his bosom. “Your wife! no more nor less than simply that cheerful toiler by your side. I thought to have conferred wealth on you! It was a proud, presuming thought—it is past now.”
“My wife! my wife! you have! you do——” ejaculated Hugh Hutton, with his full heart gushing in every tone, until it choked his utterance, and he stopped.
Through all their painful struggle he had not broken down until now; and now—but she was talking again, murmuring in her sweet, deep tones again, and he bent to listen, to hear her whisper:
“Oh, Hugh! such a night as I have passed; such resistance of the demon, before he would flee from me. But the war is over now—quite over! The estate, the projects are all resigned, and not regretted—for, oh, Hugh! where could I find such richness and fullness of life and joy as——” Her low voice died away with her breath along his cheek and chestnut hair. But it was Garnet’s nature or her present mood to pour forth the fullness of her heart in words. She spoke again: “Oh, Hugh, I am so glad, so comforted and strengthened, so proud of you, that you did not yield one jot or tittle of the right, even for my love. Oh, Hugh! oh, Hugh! my guide and guard! be always good, and great, and strong, that I may have full life and joy in loving you. And when you have drawn your Nettie up to your own high moral level, soar you higher still, that, though rising herself, she may see you ever above her, and honor you as now! as now!”