The Shadow of the PastYoung, F. E. Mills (Florence Ethel Mills)
Philosophy
The Shadow of the Past
Young, F. E. Mills (Florence Ethel Mills)
South African War, 1899-1902 -- Fiction; Triangles (Interpersonal relations) -- Fiction
"I got hurt," he said, "and I ought, I suppose, to be resting my arm,
but it wasn't possible. It's nothing to worry about."
He put her into a cab and seated himself beside her.
"It's good to be back--with you," he said.
She pressed closer against him.
"I was surprised to get your telegram from De Aar. Why didn't you write
from Johannesburg? ... All these days, and never a line!"
"I wasn't in Johannesburg," he answered. "I never got beyond De Aar.
The man I wanted was there. Do you remember the man you saw me with on
the beach that first morning? ... I went to settle a debt with him."
She turned quickly towards him, a light of comprehension dawning in her
eyes.
"He did this for you," she said, and touched the empty sleeve. "I don't
want you to tell me," she added; and he judged from her voice and from
her manner that this journey of his to De Aar with its ugly consequences
was associated in her mind with the story he had confided to her at the
Monument before their engagement. She wanted him to realise that she
trusted him.
"I've no secrets from you," he said.
"I know. But there are some things one understands without any need for
discussing them. I think I guessed when you didn't wish me to see you
off."
"I didn't suppose..." he began, and broke off and stared at her. "I met
her," he confessed baldly; "but it wasn't a thing planned. I wanted to
see the man. She is married to him; but I didn't know that when I went
there."
Silence fell between them. It seemed to the man and to the girl, seated
so still beside him, that the presence of this other and fairer woman
intruded between them, was with them, listening to their disconnected
talk.
"It's finished anyway," he said abruptly. "I'm glad you know."
He stole a look at her quiet face.
"There is a dark shadow," he went on presently, "that lies across this
land--the shadow of discontent and racial prejudice. That will pass
away eventually--from the minds of many it has passed already. I have
heard it described as the shadow of the past. Across the lives of
numberless people some such shadow falls. They pass, these shadows."
She stretched out a hand and found his advanced to meet it. He pressed
her fingers warmly.
"It isn't any sort of use to pretend that it hasn't mattered to me," he
said; "but it belongs to the past now. I can look ahead to the future
with a glad confidence... You aren't afraid to trust your future in my
keeping?"
She looked up in his face with a smile lighting the earnest eyes, and
answered simply:
"I've never been afraid of shadows, Guy... And I love you. Love and
trust are inseparable."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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