FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170  
171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   >>  
oming purple. "Why didn't you ask me before?" she said slowly. "I couldn't. She made me promise not to--mother made me promise not to. Nineteen years ago she took a terrible spell. We thought she couldn't live through it. She implored me to promise not to ask you to marry me while she was alive. I didn't want to promise such a thing, even though we all thought she couldn't live very long--the doctor only gave her six months. But she begged it on her knees, sick and suffering. I had to promise." "What had your mother against me?" cried Janet. "Nothing--nothing. She just didn't want another woman--ANY woman--there while she was living. She said if I didn't promise she'd die right there and I'd have killed her. So I promised. And she's held me to that promise ever since, though I've gone on my knees to her in my turn to beg her to let me off." "Why didn't you tell me this?" asked Janet chokingly. "If I'd only KNOWN! Why didn't you just tell me?" "She made me promise I wouldn't tell a soul," said John hoarsely. "She swore me to it on the Bible; Janet, I'd never have done it if I'd dreamed it was to be for so long. Janet, you'll never know what I've suffered these nineteen years. I know I've made you suffer, too, but you'll marry me for all, won't you, Janet? Oh, Janet, won't you? I've come as soon as I could to ask you." At this moment the stupefied Anne came to her senses and realized that she had no business to be there. She slipped away and did not see Janet until the next morning, when the latter told her the rest of the story. "That cruel, relentless, deceitful old woman!" cried Anne. "Hush--she's dead," said Janet solemnly. "If she wasn't--but she IS. So we mustn't speak evil of her. But I'm happy at last, Anne. And I wouldn't have minded waiting so long a bit if I'd only known why." "When are you to be married?" "Next month. Of course it will be very quiet. I suppose people will talk terrible. They'll say I made enough haste to snap John up as soon as his poor mother was out of the way. John wanted to let them know the truth but I said, 'No, John; after all she was your mother, and we'll keep the secret between us, and not cast any shadow on her memory. I don't mind what people say, now that I know the truth myself. It don't matter a mite. Let it all be buried with the dead' says I to him. So I coaxed him round to agree with me." "You're much more forgiving than I could ever be," Anne said,
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170  
171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   >>  



Top keywords:

promise

 

mother

 

couldn

 

people

 

wouldn

 

thought

 

terrible

 

Nineteen

 
suppose

solemnly

 

married

 

minded

 
waiting
 
buried
 

purple

 

matter

 

coaxed

 

forgiving


slowly

 

wanted

 
secret
 

shadow

 

memory

 
doctor
 

chokingly

 

dreamed

 

hoarsely


months

 

living

 

Nothing

 

killed

 

begged

 

promised

 
suffering
 

business

 
slipped

morning

 
relentless
 
realized
 

senses

 
suffer
 

implored

 
nineteen
 

suffered

 

stupefied


moment

 

deceitful