A shadow of pain or remorse flitted across Guy’s face as he replied:
"I think it is my heart, but I assure you there is no danger,—the worst
is over. I am a great deal better."
And he was better with that fair girl beside him, her face glowing with
excitement, and her soft hands pressing his. Perfectly healthy herself,
she must have imparted some life and vigor to him, for he felt his pulse
grow steadier beneath her touch, and the blood flow more regularly
through his veins. If only he could forget that crumpled letter which
lay in his vest pocket, and seemed to burn into his flesh; forget that,
and the young girl watching for an answer and the one word "come," he
might be happy yet, for Julia was one whom any man could love and be
proud to call his wife. And Guy said to himself that he did love her,
though not as he once loved Daisy, or as he could love her again were he
free to do so, and because of that full love withheld, he made a mental
vow that his whole life should be given to Julia’s happiness, so that
she might never know any care or sorrow from which he could shield her.
"And Daisy?" something whispered in his ear.
"I must and will forget her," he sternly answered, and the arm he had
thrown around Julia, who was sitting with him upon the sofa, tightened
its grasp until she winced and moved a little from him.
He was very talkative that evening, and asked his wife many questions
about her friends and the shopping she wished to do, and the places they
were to visit; and Julia, who had hitherto regarded him as a quiet,
silent man, given to few words, wondered at the change, and watched the
bright red spots on his cheeks, and thought how she would manage to have
medical advice for that dreadful heart-disease, which had come like a
nightmare to haunt her bridal days.
Next morning there came a Boston paper containing a notice of the
marriage, and this Guy sent to Daisy, with only the faint tracing of a
pencil to indicate the paragraph.
"Better so than to write," he thought; though he longed to add the
words, "Forgive me, Daisy; your letter came too late."
And so the paper was sent, and, after a week or two, Guy went back to
his home in Cuylerville, and the blue rooms which Julia had fitted up
for Daisy five years before became her own by right. And Fanny Thornton
welcomed her warmly to the house, and by many little acts of
thoughtfulness showed how glad she was to have her there. And Julia was
very happy save when she remembered the heart-disease which she was sure
Guy had, and for which he would not take advice. "There was nothing the
matter with his heart, unless it were too full of love," he told her
laughingly, and wondered to himself if in saying this he was guilty of a
lie, inasmuch as his words misled her so completely.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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