Then she spoke of
meeting Richard, and the train of circumstances which finally led to
their betrothal.
"I wanted to tell you about Frank that night, on the shore of the pond,
when you told me of Abigail, and twice I made up my mind to do so, but
something rose up to prevent it, and after that it was very hard to
do so."
She did not tell him how she at first shrank away from his caresses with
a loathing which made her flesh creep, but she confessed that she did
not love him, even when taking the marriage vow.
"But I meant to be true to you, Richard. I meant to be a good wife, and
never let you know how I felt. You were different from Frank; different
from most men whom I had met, and you did annoy me so at times. You will
tell me I was foolish to lay so much stress on little things, and so,
perhaps, I was; but little things, rather than big, make up the sum of
human happiness, and, besides, I was too young to fully understand how
any amount of talent and brain could atone for absence of culture of
manner. Then, too, I was so disappointed in your home and family. You
know how unlike they are to my own, but you can never know how terrible
it was to me who had formed so different an estimate of them.
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