Her
whole heart was in her words as she answered:
"When we first married I did not care for you; I almost think I did not
like you. Everything was new to me, and I felt as one in an unknown sea.
But it wore off; and if you only knew how I have thought of you, and
wished for you here, you would never have said anything so cruel. You are
my husband, and you cannot put me from you. Percival, promise me that you
will never hint at this again!"
He bent and kissed her. His course lay plain before him; and if an ugly
mountain rose up before his mind's eye, shadowing forth not voluntary but
forced separation, he would not look at it in that moment.
"What could mamma mean?" she asked. "I shall ask her."
"Maude, oblige me by saying nothing about it. I have already warned Lady
Kirton that it must not be repeated; and I am sure it will not be. I wish
you would also oblige me in another matter."
"In anything," she eagerly said, raising her tearful eyes to his. "Ask me
anything."
"I intend to take your brother to the warmest seaside place England can
boast of, at once; to-day or to-morrow. The sea-air may do me good also.
I want that, or something else," he added; his tone assuming a sad
weariness as he remembered how futile any "sea-air" would be for a mind
diseased. "Won't you go with us, Maude?"
"Oh yes, gladly! I will go with you anywhere."
He left her to proceed to Captain Kirton's room, thinking that he and his
wife might have been happy together yet, but for that one awful shadow of
the past, which she did not know anything about; and he prayed she never
might know.
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