For a long way he kept his course up the beach. He was thinking. How could he explain to Elizabeth the meaning of his actions last night? Would she listen after he had refused to give heed to her explanation?
Suddenly, he became aware that he stood on the spot where he had turned his ankle the night she had come to him from the water’s edge, and his thoughts were choked in the furrows of his brain. He seemed to hear her voice again as she had spoken that night of the impossibility of his love. He looked about. Far up the peninsula he recognized her. She was coming to him as straight as the line of the beach permitted. He started in her direction. She waved him back. He waited. On she came. Neither attempted to speak till she had reached his side.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” she said. “I thought you would never come.”
“You still want to see me after the way I treated you last night?”
“Please, don’t speak of that. I knew Uncle Josiah would tell you everything.”
“He did tell me all. I want you to forgive me for not taking your word that there was nothing in my past which would prevent our love, or mar it. I didn’t realize that you knew what you were saying. I feared that I had no right to love you after your father had spoken as he did of my parentage.”
With intense anticipation he held out his hands, but she drew away.
“Not now. I did not understand what Father’s obligation to you would involve.”
“Elizabeth, dear, do you mean you won’t forgive me?”