“I did not let her explain. I left too quickly. If I had waited, she might have justified herself,” he thought.
He began to doubt the cunning lies Mrs. Fleming had poured into his ears at their last interview.
“What if her story were false? Perhaps she was trying to turn my heart against the girl, because she wanted to win me herself.”
The more he thought of it, the more he began to soften toward the girl whose beautiful image filled his great, passionate heart.
And because she haunted him so, because he began to realize all the strength of his love, and the pain of their separation, he suddenly determined to return to Gull Beach.
“I will go and hear her story. Perhaps she can justify herself,” he said to his beating heart, as he opened the cottage gate.
All was still and quiet, but a light shone through the parlor blinds, and he hoped that she was there thinking of him in sadness and tears that would change to love and joy when she saw him enter the room.
His heart was beating almost to suffocation as he rang the bell at the door.
There was a little delay, then it swung open, and in the glow of the hall lamp he saw a rather grim old lady in a widow’s cap and gown—Daisie’s Aunt Alice.
She recognized him at once—the disturbing cause in the broken engagement—and stiffened herself implacably.