Justin hastened to convey the news to Curtis Clayton, whom he found at
home, in the front yard, engaged in freeing a butterfly from the
spoke-like web of a geometric spider. A flush of indignation swept
through Justin, as the thought came to him that perhaps Clayton had
known all along and had kept silent. Clayton took the butterfly in his
hands and began to remove the clinging mesh from its golden wings.
When he had done so his fingers were smeared with its gold dust and it
crawled along unable to fly. He regarded it thoughtfully.
“I’ve done the best I could; I released it, but I can’t put the gold
back on its wings, nor mend them. The rest of its life it will be a
draggled wreck, but luckily its life will be short.”
Then Justin told him what he had learned from Sloan Jasper.
Clayton cast the draggled butterfly away and sank to a seat on the
door-step. His face filled with a troubled look. For a little while he
said nothing.
“I suppose that I am partly to blame for that,” he confessed, humbly.
“I have never talked to you about Mrs. Dudley, but I will tell you now
that she was once my wife.”
Justin showed no surprise.
“I knew it.”
“You knew it! How? I never mentioned it to you.”
“No, but I have seen that photograph of her you have treasured, and I
saw her that day of the rabbit hunt. Putting those two things
together, with something that Mary told Lucy, made me sure that she
had once been your wife.”
Clayton was bewildered.
“Something Mary told Lucy?”
“Yes, about your arm; Mrs. Dudley told Mary how you came to have a
stiff arm, and though she did not admit that she was the woman who
caused it, and Mary did not suspect it then, Lucy did; and she told me
about it.”
Clayton stared at the butterfly crawling away through the grass.
“When I heard that Mary had gone with Mrs. Dudley to Denver, I rode
over to Sloan Jasper’s to tell him that I feared it was not wise. But,
really, I had nothing on which to base a charge, except my suspicions.
I knew why I had left her, but nothing more. And my courage failed. I
said nothing, and I should have said something. But,” he leaned back
wearily against the door, “when you come to love a woman as I loved
her, Justin, you will perhaps know how I felt, and why I hesitated. I
was weak, because of that love; that is all I can say about it.”
The contempt growing for Clayton in Justin’s heart was swept away. He
knew what love, true love, is; the love which believeth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things; which changes never, though
all the world is changed.
“I loved her,” Clayton went on, his deep voice trembling, “and rather
than say anything that might not be true I said nothing. I did wrong.
And I am punished, for this thing hurts me more than you can know.”
Justin had come close to Clayton’s heart many times, but never closer
than now. He looked at the suffering man with much sympathy. Clayton
swung his stiff arm toward the crawling butterfly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account