"
"Good-night," answered Marian dolefully, expecting to resume her thoughts
of Danvers. But, instead, he straightway disappeared from her mind and she
could think only of Howard. She was free now. The one barrier between him
and her of which she had been really conscious was gone. And her heart
began to ache with longing for him. Why had he not written? What was he
doing? Did he really love her or was his passion for her only a flash of a
strong and swift imagination?
No, he loved her--she could not doubt that. But she could not understand
his conduct. She felt that she ought to be very unhappy, yet she was not.
The longer she thought of him and the more she weighed his words and looks,
the stronger became her trust in him. "He loves me," she said. "He will
come when he can. It may be even harder for him than for me."
And so, explanation failing--for she rejected every explanation that
reflected upon him--she hid and excused him behind that familiar refuge of
the doubting, mystery.
XIV.
THE NEWS-RECORD GETS A NEW EDITOR.
A few minutes after leaving Marian that last night at Mrs. Carnarvon's,
Howard was deep in a mood of self-contempt. He felt that he had faced the
crisis like a coward. He despised the weakness which enfeebled him for
effort to win her and at the same time made it impossible for him to thrust
her from his mind.
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