He turned his angry, miserable young face upon her, and her heart was wrung for him.
"I am going over there to-night, Kitty."
"You will do nothing rash, Anthony?"
"If I find that anything but her own will has come between us, I will do my best to win her back from him. I have the right, Kitty. I was the first, and she let me kiss her."
"You say she was engaged to you, Anthony? Do you mean formally?"
"Everything but formally. Ah! I wish I had settled it then—put a ring on her before them all. It was my mother. She made me promise to do nothing till I came back."
"Oh! she knew, then?"
"I told her, Kitty, and she was bitterly angry. And I, mad that I was, I yielded to her will. Afterwards, when I heard she had found them out, and got Pam over here, I thought her heart had softened to me after all those years, and that she was helping me towards my happiness."
"Why did she make you promise that?"
"I am ashamed to say it, Kitty—because she persuaded me you cared for me, and ought not to be told suddenly. I beg your pardon, Kitty; I was not ass enough to think it of myself!"