“He took it in his hand and looked at it. I saw his lip work and his throat quiver with an involuntary spasm.
“‘I am sure I do not know.’
“I was speechless. Your grandfather was confounded. Colonel Wayne looked white, but resolute.
“‘God only is my witness,’ said I, slowly, as if the words came gasping from my heart. ‘So help me God, I loved him, and he loved me.’
“A quiver ran through his frame as I spoke, but he preserved the same placidity of face.
“‘There is some mistake, Mrs. Simcoe,’ said your grandfather, not unkindly, to me. ‘Go to your room.’
“I obeyed, for my duty was done.”
Mrs. Simcoe paused, and rocked silently to and fro. Hope took her hand and kissed it reverently. Presently the narration was quietly resumed:
“I told your mother my story. But she was stunned by her own grief, and I do not think she comprehended me. Dr. Peewee came, and she was married. Your mother did not say yes—for she could not utter a word—but the ceremony proceeded. I heard the words, ‘Whom God hath joined together,’ and I laughed aloud, and fell fainting.
“It was a few days after the marriage, when Colonel Wayne and his wife were absent, that your grandfather said to me,