Remember that I have always had to care for
others--always; and I can bear much. I will not ask what your trouble is,
I only ask you"--here she spoke slowly and earnestly, and rested her hand
on his shoulder--"to say to me that you love no other woman; and
that--that no other woman has a claim upon you. Then I shall be content
to pity you, to help you, to love you. God gives women many pains, but
none so great as the love that will not trust utterly; for trust is our
bread of life. Yes, indeed, indeed!"
"I dare not say," he said, "that it is your misfortune to love me, for in
this you show how noble a woman can be. But I will say that the cup is
bitter-sweet for you. . . . I cannot tell you now what my trouble is; but
I can say that no other living woman has a claim upon me. . . . My
reckoning is with the dead."
"That is with God," she whispered, "and He is just and merciful too. . . .
Can it not be repaired here?" She smoothed back his hair, then let her
fingers stray lightly on his cheek.
It hurt him like death to reply. "No, but there can be punishment here."
She shuddered slightly.
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