Country homes -- Fiction; Love stories; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
Many a time afterward he tried to recall the exact words that were
spoken on that memorable occasion, but everything seemed unreal to
him, save Helen's face, pale with the determination not to accede to
his wishes. Finally, he could recall asking her if she desired her
freedom. Alas, poor Guy! The quick spontaneity of her response
shattered his last hope.
"Ah, yes, Guy, please. We will be so much better friends, then."
"Friends!" he echoed bitterly; "after all these years."
Helen put her hand on his shoulder, but he gently pushed her from him.
"It is as well I should know the truth now as later. You do not love
me, Helen. There is nothing left now, but for us to part."
When he was leaving a sudden recollection came to him of the cause of
all this unhappiness, and crushing down his own bitterness, he
endeavored in quiet and carefully chosen words to dissuade her from a
friendship which he feared she would rue, but she maintained an almost
unbroken silence, and the expression of her face told him that his
warning was of no avail. So they parted.
Guy was more than justified in his distrust of Lillian Stuart. Had he
been a man of less delicate sense of honor he could have righted
himself in Helen's eyes by simply relating to her some incontrovertible
facts; but the circumstances which had given him his knowledge sealed
his lips.
While at college, the name, Lillian Stuart, had grown familiar to him,
through hearing her praises sounded by his chum Nelson Leonard. The
year after their graduation they ran across each other at Baden, and
their college friendship was resumed. Guy was not long in discovering
that there was something radically wrong with his friend, and the
cause, which all Baden apparently understood, was soon made clear to
him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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