I had to tell Julia about it, and I gathered up the four scraps of paper
from the floor where Daisy had thrown them, and joining them together
saw they really were the marriage settlement, and kept them for Guy,
should he ever be able to hear about it and know what it meant. There
was a telegram for me, the next evening, dated at Detroit, and bearing
simply the words, "Arrived safely," and that was all I heard of Daisy.
No one in town knew of her having been here but Julia and myself, and it
was better that they should not, for Guy’s life hung on a thread, and
for many days and nights I trembled lest that promise, sealed by a kiss,
would have to be redeemed.
That was three weeks ago, and Guy is better now and knows us all, and
to-day, for the first time, I have a strong hope that I am not to be
left alone, and I thank Heaven for that hope, and feel as if I were at
peace with all the world, even with Daisy herself, from whom I have
heard nothing since that brief telegram.
————
August 1st, ——.
The shadow of death has passed from our house, and I can almost say the
shadow of sickness too, for though Guy is still weak as a child and thin
as a ghost, he is decidedly on the gain, and to-day I drove him out for
the third time, and hoped from something he said that he was beginning
to feel some interest in the life so kindly given back to him. Still he
will never be just the same. The blow stunned him too completely for him
to recover quite his old happy manner, and there is a look of age in his
face which pains me to see. He knows Daisy has been here, and why. I had
to tell him all about it, and sooner too than I meant to, for almost his
first coherent question to me after his reason came back was:
"Where is Daisy? I am sure I heard her voice. It could not have been a
dream. Is she here, or has she been here? Tell me the truth, Fanny."
So I told him, and showed him the bits of paper, and held his head on my
bosom, while he cried like a child. How he loves her still, and how glad
he was to know that she was not as mercenary as it would at first seem.
Not that her tearing up that paper will make any difference about the
money. She cannot give it to him, he says, until she is of age, neither
does he wish it at all, and he would not take it from her; but he is
glad to see her disposition in the matter; glad to have me think better
of her than I did, and I am certain that he is expecting to hear from
her every day, and is disappointed that he does not. He did not reproach
me as I thought he would when I told him about turning her out in the
rain; he only said:
"Poor Daisy, did she get very wet? She is so delicate, you know. I hope
it did not make her sick."
Oh, the love a man will feel for a woman, let her be ever so unworthy. I
cannot comprehend it. And why should I? an old maid like me, who never
loved any one but Guy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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