“You saved her,” he said. “You saved her; that is all that I can think. Let me go away now.”
He had spoken with his head bent, but his voice did not falter. And then he leapt up from his chair and turned to the door.
CHAPTER XX
“Do not go yet, my boy,” said Mr. Long. It was his voice that was faltering. “Do not go until I have said all that is on my mind to say to you.”
“Can I hear more, sir? Is there anything more to be said?”
“Not much, but still something.”
He motioned Dick back to his chair, and, after a pause, Dick resumed his seat.
“I saved her, you said,” continued Mr. Long. “It was in order to save her that I asked her for that promise. Is that as noble a motive as most men have when they ask a young woman to marry them? I think that it is, whatever any one who knows the facts of this matter as you and I know them may say. It may be said that it was despicable on my part to take advantage of the longing for freedom of this dear caged linnet of ours—that I took advantage of her inexperience of life to bind her down to a marriage that would mean to her a far worse bondage than that from which she hoped to escape.”