But, oh, what peril had been
there! It was but the other day she had striven so hard to give the
lie to her love and to become Larry's wife. She shuddered beneath
the bedclothes as she thought of the danger she had run. One word
would have changed all her Paradise into a perpetual wail of tears
and waste of desolation. When she woke in the morning from her long
sleep an effort was wanting to tell her that it was all true. Oh,
if it had slipped from her then;--if she had waked after such a
dream to find herself loving in despair with a sore bosom and angry
heart!
She met him downstairs, early, in the study, having her first
request to make to him. Might she go in at once after breakfast and
tell them all? "I suppose I ought to go to your father," he said.
"Let me go first," she pleaded, hanging on his arm. "I would not
think that I was not mindful of them from the very beginning." So
she was driven into Dillsborough in the pony carriage which had
been provided for old Mrs. Morton's use, and told her own story.
"Papa," she said, going to the office door. "Come into the house;--
come at once." And then, within her father's arms, while her
stepmother listened, she told them of her triumph. "Mr. Reginald
Morton wants me to be his wife, and he is coming here to ask you."
"The Lord in heaven be good to us," said Mrs.
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