From its door the ghost of past evil-doing can surely not escape to confront and destroy.

So Captain Bertram thought.

He must forget Josephine; the wrong he had done her, the vows he had made to her, could never be washed out or forgiven, but in all else he would be perfect in the future.
Before he returned to Northbury for the express purpose of wooing and winning Beatrice Meadowsweet, he had written to Josephine.

In his letter he had promised to marry her; he had promised to confide all about her to his mother.

He said he should be at home for a month, and during that month he would watch his opportunity and break the news of his engagement to Josephine to his parent.