Madelaine was very pale as Gordon made this confession. She backed against the table and whetted her parted lips.
“Gordon,” she whispered huskily, “—is it Bernie Gridley?”
“Yes,” said the man simply. “And I want you to know that even if you had not found Mr. Forge, and had returned willing to accept me, I should still have pursued the course I’m taking now.”
For a moment Madelaine surveyed him. And then she saw the clean-cut character in the thing he was doing. With her intuitive understanding of psychology, she realized that the very best side of her cousin was disclosing itself now.
“Gordon—was that—why you would not kiss me on the lips—the last time we faced each other in this room?”
“Something of the sort, Madge. Yes.”
“Gordon, this is a very manly thing you’re doing. A big thing!”
“Please don’t make it any more distressing. I’m not doing it from any hope of praise or sense of duty. I’m doing it because I found a new thrill in shooting straight, after you gave me the incentive to stop sloughing, Madge. And—I’ve learned more—in France. Miss Gridley can never be to me what you have been, Madge. But then, I don’t deserve you, and never did. I can make Miss Gridley very happy. I can nurse her back to normality and health. She has very great confidence in me. She loves me greatly. She was very tender when she heard I had returned and was confined in the hospital. She visited me every day. It will not be at all difficult to love her for that tenderness. All of us have the capacity to love, I find, Madge, when the basis of love is service. And there is usually a Great Circumstance where we eventually find we can serve—very beautifully. Please don’t weep, Madelaine. Your mother—my aunt——”
“Mother doesn’t need to tell me anything, Gordon. I understand. I cared for Bernie in her dilemma. And I know now why she would not tell me her lover’s name. You were a relative. There is much that is fine in Bernie. But, Gordon, it hasn’t had a chance. Oh, I’m so overwhelmed with everything turning out this way that I don’t know what to do or say.”
“I bothered you to-night, Madge, because I delayed my departure almost ten days now, awaiting your return. I had to see you and say this personally. I felt it would be yellow to leave it to a letter. I am leaving for Chicago at midnight. Bernice and I are going to Pittsfield, Kansas, as soon as we are married. I am going out to manage an iron works out there. If we’re unable to return east for your wedding, I want you to let me offer you all my good wishes, now—to-night. Forge is a lucky dog, with your life in his keeping. I feel sure he appreciates it. You would not love him enough to marry him if he lacked the capacity for such appreciation.”