Won't you believe that everything is as I wish it?"
"If I could, I should have to lose the memory of the last four months.
Well, try your best to forgive me, child."
"Unless you hate me, don't hurt me with that thought again. I forgive you?
I, who am the cause of it all?"
He kissed her tear-filled eyes tenderly, and turned with a sign to her
mother.
They watched to the last his loved face at the window, Ruth with a sad
smile and a loving wave of her handkerchief.
Over at the mole it is not a bad place to witness tragedies. Pathos holds
the upper hand, and the welcomes are sometimes as heart-rending as the
leave-takings. A woman stood on the ferry with a blank, working face down
which the tears fell heedlessly; a man, her husband, turned from her, drew
his hat down over his eyes, and stalked off toward the train without a
backward glance. Parting is a figure of death in this respect, --that only
those who are left need mourn; the others have something new beyond.
Chapter XXI
The fire-light threw grotesque shadows on the walls. Ruth and Louis in the
library made no movement to ring for lights; it was quite cosey as it was.
They had both drawn near the crackling wood-blaze, Ruth in a low rocker,
Arnold in Mr. Levice's broad easy-chair.
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