The beautiful dark eyes were raised to his, swimming in tears.
"Oh, how unhappy I am!" cried poor Kathleen. "I am the most wretched girl in the whole world! Every one is against me!"
The old man did not answer. He regarded her with sad, troubled eyes through his smoky glasses.
"You, too, Uncle Ben, have turned against me just when I thought you would be such a comfort to me," sobbed his niece.
"You are willful and unjust, my child, if you expect me to counsel you to throw over your lover for the sake of a man who has a wife already," was the mild reply.
"But he will be divorced, uncle, and then we will be free to love each other."
"And this honorable young man, Mr. Darrell, will be thrown over remorselessly for the world to laugh at as a jilted man!"
"Uncle Ben, I can explain it all to Teddy. He is so good and kind he will forgive me. He would not want to marry me if he knew that I loved another man."
Her heart, thrilling with the intensity of her love, lent fire to her eyes and passion to her voice. She felt that it would be a sin to marry Teddy with her heart so full of Ralph.