“Are you indeed so sorry to leave Lucy Caldwell?” asked the old lawyer, in wonderment, adding, “dear me, in what a short time young girls learn to care for each other, it would appear. Three weeks ago you did not know that there was such a girl as Lucy on the face of the globe, now you are crying your eyes out at leaving her. Brace up, little Jess, Lucy shall pay a visit to the Trevalyns along with you, if I can arrange matters. So be comforted, child, that promise will make you happy, I know.”
But, despite this assurance, little Jess still continued to weep on, refusing to be comforted.
It was well for her that he did not divine the cause of her tears.
The parting to the newly wedded husband was of little consequence; he felt that he had accomplished the duty his dead uncle had imposed upon him, of marrying the girl that she might inherit the Dinsmore millions—that was all there was of it.
He would have been amazed had any one even hinted at the possibility that the girl he had just wedded cared for him, loved him with all the passionate strength of her young heart, and that it would take two to sever the bonds which bound them together.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE DARKENING CLOUDS.
“Ah, cruel as the grave,
Go, go, and come no more!
But canst thou set my heart
Just where it was before?