“She feared I would hate her memory,” he said to himself, and then he closed his eyes and remained silent a long time, communing with his own thoughts.
Very sad and hopeless they were, but the jealous misery had passed from them, also the contempt that had inspired him when he believed that Fair had gone from the bedside where he lay suffering for her sake straight to the arms of the man who had wounded him.
“She was more noble than I believed, and she loved me, she really loved me. For that love’s sake, I must think kindly of her, must try to help her in her trouble, even though she may never be nearer to me than now.”
Unclosing his eyes, he looked at Mrs. Howard. She was still sitting quietly in her easy-chair, staring into vacancy with troubled eyes. As he stirred, she started and met his glance.
“You think me a fool, or a madman?” he said, blushing slightly.
“No—only rash and imprudent,” she replied.
“Oh, you do not understand,” sighed Bayard Lorraine. He sighed again, and added: “She said that her love for me was her fate, and I cannot doubt but that my love for her is mine. Yes, my heart and soul have been full of her since the first day her beautiful eyes looked into mine. I have never loved any woman but her, and I never shall.”
“Yet it seems to me that long before I ever saw you, Bayard, I read in the New York papers repeated announcements of your approaching marriage with some society belle,” she remarked.
“Mere newspaper stories, in which there was no truth,” he replied. “I was fancy free until I met Fair Fielding, and, having lost her, I do not believe I can ever love again. Our love was fate, as she said—a most cruel fate it seems now, yet the memory of our once happy love will stay with me forever.”
His impetuous love, his despairing grief touched her very heart. In the light of his words, her repressed love and longing for the girl who had so bitterly deceived her surged again over her heart, and swept away like a rushing river all her resentment and indignation. She held out her hand suddenly to him, saying falteringly: