Until I heard it from you, I did
not know Frank Van Buren was within a thousand miles of Camden. The note
from him which I leave with this letter, and which you will remember was
brought to the door by a servant, who said it had been mislaid and
forgotten, will prove that I tell you truly. The other note which you
found, and which must have fallen from the box where I kept it, was
written years ago, when I was almost a little girl, with no thought that
I ever could be the humbled, wretched creature I am now.
"Let me tell you all about it, Richard--how I happened to be engaged to
Frank, and how wounded and sore and sorry I was when you came the second
time to Chicopee, and asked me to be your wife."
Then followed the whole story of Ethelyn's first love. Nothing was
concealed, nothing kept back. Even the dreariness of the day when Aunt
Van Buren came up from Boston and broke poor Ethie's heart, was
described and dwelt upon with that particularity which shows how the
lights, and shadows, and sunshine, and storms which mark certain events
in one's history will impress themselves upon one's mind, as parts of
the great joy or sorrow which can never be forgotten.
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