I loved you when I came here,--even when your husband was alive.

Don't be angry, Mrs.Peyton; HE would not, and need not, have been angry; he would have pitied the foolish boy, who, in the very innocence and ignorance of his passion, might have revealed it to him as he did to everybody but ONE.
And yet, I sometimes think you might have guessed it, had you thought of me at all.

It must have been on my lips that day I sat with you in the boudoir.

I know that I was filled with it; with it and with you; with your presence, with your beauty, your grace of heart and mind,--yes, Mrs.Peyton, even with your own unrequited love for Susy.

Only, then, I knew not what it was." "But I think I can tell you what it was then, and now," said Mrs.
Peyton, recovering her nervous little laugh, though it died a moment after on her lips.