“Thank you, love. You see I didn’t find out why I liked my friend so well till I lost her. I had just begun to feel that you were very dear,—for after the birthday you were like an angel in the house, Christie,—when you changed all at once, and I thought you suspected me, and didn’t like it. Your running away when Kitty came confirmed my fear; then in came that—would you mind if I said—confounded Fletcher?”
“Not in the least.”
“Well, as he didn’t win, I won’t be hard on him; but I gave up then and had a tough time of it; especially that first night when this splendid lover appeared and received such a kind welcome.”
Christie saw the strong hand that lay on David’s knee clenched slowly, as he knit his brows with a grim look, plainly showing that he was not what she was inclined to think him, a perfect saint.
“Oh, my heart! and there I was loving you so dearly all the time, and you wouldn’t see or speak or understand, but went away, left me to torment all three of us,” cried Christie with a tragic gesture.
“My dearest girl, did you ever know a man in love do, say, or think the right thing at the right time? I never did,” said David, so penitently that she forgave him on the spot.
“Never mind, dear. It has taught us the worth of love, and perhaps we are the better for the seeming waste of precious time. Now I’ve not only got you but Letty also, and your mother is mine in very truth. Ah, how rich I am!”
“But I thought it was all over with me when I found Letty, because, seeing no more of Fletcher, I had begun to hope again, and when she came back to me I knew my home must be hers, yet feared you would refuse to share it if you knew all. You are very proud, and the purest-hearted woman I ever knew.”
“And if I had refused, you would have let me go and held fast to Letty?”
“Yes, for I owe her every thing.”