His arm tightened about her. "My darling, it's nearly twenty-three years ago that she died. Yes, I loved her. But I've never wanted her back. Her life was such an inferno." He paused a moment, then as she was silent went on more steadily. "She was eighteen and I was twenty-two when it began. I was home for a summer vacation, and she had just come to help her aunt as infant teacher at the school. All the men were wild about her, but she had no use for any of 'em till I come along. We met along the shore or on the cliffs. We met constantly. We loved each other like mad. It got beyond all reason—all restraint. We didn't look ahead, either of us. We were young, and it was so infernally sweet. I'm not offering any excuse—only telling you the simple truth. You won't understand of course."
She pressed closer to him. "Why shouldn't I understand?"
He leaned his head against her. "God bless you, my dear! You're very good to me—far better than I deserve. I was a blackguard, I know. But I never meant to let her down. That was almost as much her doing as mine—poor little soul! We were found out at last, and there was a fearful row with my people. I wanted to take her away then and there, and marry her. But she wouldn't hear of it—neither would her aunt—a hard, proud woman! I didn't know then—no one knew—that she was expecting a child, or I'd have defied 'em all. Instead, she urged and entreated me to go away for a few weeks—give her time to think, she said. I hoped even then that she would give in and come to me. But the next thing I knew, she was married to a brute called Green—skipper of a filthy little cargo-steamer, who had been after her for some time. She went with him on one or two short voyages. Heaven knows what she endured in that time. Then the baby was born—Dick. They called him a seven-months child. But I knew—I guessed at once. One day I met her—told her so. I saw then—in part—what her life was like. She was terrified—said Green would kill her if he ever found out. The man was a great hulking bully—a drunkard perpetually on shore. He used to beat her as it was. She implored me not to come up against him, and—for her sake alone—I never did. Then—it was nearly a year after—he went off on a voyage and didn't come back. The boat was reported lost with all hands. I think everyone rejoiced so far as he was concerned. She went back to work at the school, supporting herself and the child. I never induced her to accept any help from me, but gradually, as the years went on and my uncle died and I became my own master, I got into the position of intimate friend. I was allowed to interfere a bit in Dick's destinies. But for a long, long while she permitted no more than that. I don't know exactly what made me stick to her. I used to go away, but I always came back. I couldn't give her up. And at last—twelve years after Green's disappearance—I won her over. She promised to marry me. The very day afterwards, that scoundrel Green came back! And her martyrdom began again."
"Oh, Edward, my dear!" Vera's hand went up to his face, stroking, caressing. The suppressed misery of his voice was almost more than she could bear. "How you suffered!" she whispered.
He was silent for a moment or two, controlling himself. "It's over now," he said then. "Thank God, it's a long time over! She died—less than a year after—when Jack and Robin were born. Her husband fell over the cliff on the same night in a fit of drunkenness and was killed. That's all the story. You know the rest. I'm sorry—I'm very sorry—I hadn't the decency to tell you before we married."
"You—needn't be sorry, dear," she said very gently.
He looked at her. "Do you mean that, Vera? Do you mean it makes no difference to you?"
She met his eyes with a shining tenderness in her own that gave her a womanliness which he had never seen in her before. "No," she said, "I don't mean that. I mean that I'm glad nothing happened to—to prevent my marrying you. I mean—that I love you ten times more for telling me now."
He gathered her impulsively close in his arms, kissing her with lips that trembled. "My own girl! My own generous wife! I'll make up to you," he vowed. "I'll give you such love as you've never dreamed of. I've been a brute to you often—often. But that's over. I'll make you happy now—if it kills me!"
She laughed softly, with a quivering exultation, between his kisses. "That wouldn't make me happy in the least. And I don't think you will find it so hard as that either. You've begun already—quite nicely. Now that we understand each other, we can never make really serious mistakes again."