Tessa was relieved that she said “he” instead of “Gerald” or “Dr. Lake.”
“If you will not stay all night, too, Miss Jewett, he shall take you home.”
“I can not, dear. I only came because I wanted to talk with Sue Greyson once more before I lost her.”
Rubbers and waterproof were hurried on, and Tessa was left alone with the fire, the rain, and her work.
Suppose that it were herself who was to be married to-morrow—
Would she wish to run away? Run away from whom? Although her Ralph Towne had died and been buried, that old, sharp, sweet, memory was wrapped around her still; it would always be sweet although so sharp—and bitterly, bitterly sharp although so sweet; if it might become wholly the one or wholly the other, but it could never be that; never unless she learned Love’s lesson as Mrs. Towne had laid it before her. But that was so utterly and hopelessly beyond her present growth!
Would he despise her if he could know how much that happy time was in her thoughts? Was she tenacious where stronger minds would forget? He would think her weak and romantic like the heroine of a story paper novel; that is, if he could think weak any thing so wholly innocent.
She trusted the emerald ring on her finger; at times it burned into her flesh; sometimes she tore it off that she might forget her promise, and then—oh, foolish, incomprehensible, womanly Tessa!—she would take it again and slip it on with a reverence and love for the old memory that she could not be ashamed of although she tried.
Had she been too hard upon Ralph Towne in their latest interview? Why need she have given shape to her hitherto unspoken thoughts concerning his life; she could not tell him of her prayers that he might change and yet become—for it was not too late—the good, good man that she had once believed him to be. He had taken away her faith in himself; he might give it back, grown stronger, if he would. If he only would!
Dr. Greyson’s step was in the hall; Sue’s voice was less excited, her father was speaking quietly to her. Sue, poor Sue! She would never be again the free, wild Sue Greyson that she was to-night.