I knew then that you would, perhaps, lose your head again, and yet I loved you so much that I could not give you up.
Then came the night of your father's ball and all the misery, and I was a coward and shut myself up instead of keeping my arms around you and holding you up to the best that was in you, just as Uncle George begged me to do.

And when your father turned against you and drove you from your home, all because you had tried to defend me from insult, I saw only the disgrace and did not see the man behind it; and then you went away and I stretched out my arms for you to come back to me and only your words echoed in my ears that you would never come back to me until you were satisfied with yourself.

Then I gave up and argued it out and said it was all over--" He had left his seat and at every sentence had tried to take her in his arms, but she kept her palms toward him.
"No, don't touch me! You SHALL hear me out; I must empty all my heart! I was lonely and heart-sore and driven half wild with doubts and what people said, my father worse than all of them.

And Mr.Willits was kind and always at my beck and call--and so thoughtful and attentive--and I tried and tried--but I couldn't.

I always had you before me--and you haunted me day and night, and sometimes when he would come in that door I used to start, hoping it might be you." "It IS me, my darling!" he cried, springing toward her.