“But—I—belong—to—you!” she faltered.
“No, dear. The ceremony that bound you to me is void in law, since you had a husband living when I married you. You are free of any claim of mine. Shall you go at once to him, or will you write for him to come for you?”
She read his keen anxiety in his ghastly face, and it came to her suddenly that her happiness would prove a deathblow to this good man, who was so devoted to her that it seemed impossible for his enfeebled heart to bear the shock of her loss.
Looking up at him with troubled eyes, she said:
“Leave me here alone till morning, that I may decide what is best for me to do.”
CHAPTER XXXIX.
REACHING A DECISION.
Colonel Falconer would never forget as long as he lived, nor would Pansy, the awful suspense of that night. He spent it among the mountains, walking hard all night, in order to overcome his misery by sheer physical weakness. She spent it on her knees by her bedside, praying.
It seemed to her that it would be wrong to desert Colonel Falconer and go back to her dear love, her faithful husband, even though she really belonged to him, for it would surely break Colonel Falconer’s heart.
“And how could I be happy even with my beloved Norman and our darling child, if I knew that I had caused the death of one who loved me so well, and who had died for my sake?” the generous young wife kept saying over and over to herself, and resolutely shutting out of her heart all thoughts of the happiness she could have if she returned to Norman.
Passionately as she loved Norman, her young heart had become so inured to sorrow, that she was capable of making a great sacrifice for another’s sake, and at last she decided that for Colonel Falconer’s sake she would bear the burden of a secret sorrow till the day of her death.