The doctor could
not say, Your intercourse with us might still be dangerous to the peace
of one heart; and in his inner conviction he believed that it might be.
He only looked at Val; the yearning face, the tearful eyes; and in that
moment it occurred to the doctor that something more than the ordinary
wear and tear of life had worn the once smooth brow, brought streaks of
silver to the still luxuriant hair.
"Do you know that you nearly killed her?" he asked, his voice softening.
"I have known that it might be so. Had _any_ atonement lain in my power;
any means by which her grief might have been soothed; I would have gone
to the ends of the earth to accomplish it. I would even have died if it
could have done good. But, of all the world, I alone might attempt
nothing. For myself I have spent the years in misery; not on that score,"
he hastened to add in his truth, and a thought crossed Dr. Ashton that he
must allude to unhappiness with his wife--"on another. If it will be any
consolation to know it--if you might accept it as even the faintest
shadow of atonement--I can truly say that few have gone through the care
that I have, and lived. Anne has been amply avenged."
The Rector laid his hand on the slender fingers, hot with fever, whiter
than they ought to be, betraying life's inward care. He forgave him from
that moment; and forgiveness with Dr.
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