Then she was accused of treating her stepmother with
contempt.
She did walk to Bragton, taking the path by the fields and over the
bridge, and loitering for a few minutes as she leant upon the rail.
It was there and there only that she had seen together the two men
who between them seemed to cloud all her life,--the man whom she
loved and the man who loved her. She knew now,--she thought that
she knew quite well,--that her feelings for Reginald Morton were of
such a nature that she could not possibly become the wife of any
one else. But had she not seen him for those few minutes on this
spot, had he not fired her imagination by telling her of his desire
to go back with her over the sites which they had seen together
when she was a child, she would not, she thought, have been driven
to make to herself so grievous a confession. In that case it might
have been that she would have brought herself to give her hand to
the suitor of whom all her friends approved. And then with infinite
tenderness she thought of all Larry's virtues,--and especially of
that great virtue in a woman's eyes, the constancy of his devotion
to herself. She did love him,--but with a varied love,--a love
which was most earnest in wishing his happiness, which would have
been desirous of the closest friendship if only nothing more were
required.
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