A heart-break for that kind is their
salvation: without it they go on breaking the hearts of others."
As I read Belle's and Hungerford's letters my thoughts went back
again--as they did so often indeed--to the voyage of the 'Fulvia', and
then to Mrs. Falchion's presence in the Rocky Mountains. There was a
strange destiny in it all, and I had no pleasant anticipations about the
end; for, even if she could or did do Roscoe no harm, so far as his
position was concerned, I saw that she had already begun to make trouble
between him and Ruth.
That day which saw poor Boldrick's death put her in a conflicting light
to me. Now I thought I saw in her unusual gentleness, again an unusual
irony, an almost flippant and cruel worldliness; and though at the time
she was most touched by the accident, I think her feeling of horror at it
made her appear to speak in a way which showed her unpleasantly to Mr.
Devlin and his daughter. It may be, however, that Ruth Devlin saw further
into her character than I guessed, and understood the strange
contradictions of her nature. But I shall, I suppose, never know
absolutely about that; nor does it matter much now.
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