"
I could afford to smile at that.
"If you could see how she has ever gone about to prove that she did not
love me, you would rest easy on that score, dear lad."
But he would only shake his head again.
"'Twas to save your life she rode in on us that morning under the oaks
in the glade."
"'Twas a womanly horror of a duel and bloodshed, more belike," said I.
"But she has saved your life thrice since then, as you confess."
"Yes; from a strained sense of wifely duty, as she took good care to
tell me."
"None the less--ah, Jack, you do not know her as I do; she would never
have consented to stand before the priest with you had there not been
something warmer than hatred in her heart."
"'Twas a bitter necessity, fairly forced upon her. Tell me; had there
been a spark of love for me in her heart, would she have treated me as
the dust beneath her feet on that long infaring from the western
mountains? She never spoke a word to me, Dick, in all those weeks."
"Which may prove no more than that you said or did something to cut her
to the quick. 'Twould be well in your way, Jack. She is as sensitive as
she should be, and you are blunter than I--which is the worst I could
say of you."
"No, no; you are far beside the mark. You forget that the breaking of
the marriage is of her own proposing--at least, I should say I only
hinted at it."
"There may be two sides to that, as well. Have you ever told her that
you love her, Jack?"
"Surely not! I have been all kinds of a poltroon in this matter, as I
have confessed, but this one thing I have not done.
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