"Dear Mollie June! You must know I love you. I loved you three years ago in Riceville. There's nothing wrong about that. When you're in such trouble I must tell you. It can't do you any good. There's nothing we can do. But--I do love you!"
She turned her eyes upon him.
"Why didn't you tell me that--in Riceville?"
"Oh!" he cried.
Mollie June rose and came to the bedside.
"I know," she said with womanly gentleness. "You couldn't, of course. Because you were so poor. I ought to have waited--John!"
For a moment her hand hovered above his head as if she would have stroked his ruffled hair. But it descended to her side again.
"We mustn't talk like this. I must go. I'll tell Alicia we are--bored!"
There were tears not only in her eyes but on her cheeks now. Undisguisedly she wiped them away and carefully dried her eyes with a small handkerchief.
"I shall see you at dinner," she said with a brave smile, and, turning, walked quickly out of the room.