rb which must comfort you if I am a gaunt ghost of my former self:
'A lean freeman is better than a fat slave.' There comes the first smile
I have seen; but my next bit of news will bring a frown, I think. When I
was well enough to creep out, I learned that Ottila was married. You
heard the rumor, doubtless, but not the name, for Gabriel's and mine
were curiously blended in many minds by the suddenness of my
disappearance and his appearance as the bridegroom. It was like
her,--she had prepared for me as if sure I was to fill the place I had
left, hoping that this confidence of hers would have its due effect upon
me. It did try me sorely, but an experience once over is as if it had
never been, as far as regret or indecision is concerned; therefore
wedding gowns and imperious women failed to move me. To be left a
groomless bride stung that fiery pride of hers more than many an actual
shame or sin would have done. People would pity her, would see her loss,
deride her wilful folly. Gabriel loved her as she desired to be loved,
blindly and passionately; few knew of our later bond, many of our
betrothal, why not let the world believe me the rejected party come back
for a last appeal? I had avoided all whom I once knew, for I loathed the
place; no one had discovered me at the hospital, she thought me gone,
she boldly took the step, married the poor boy, left Cuba before I was
myself again, and won herself an empty victory which I never shall
disturb."

"How strange! Yet I can believe it of her, she looked a woman who would
dare do anything. Then you came back, Adam, to find me? What led you
here, hoping so much and knowing so little?"

"Did you ever know me do anything in the accustomed way? Do I not always
aim straight at the thing I want and pursue it by the shortest road? It
fails often, and I go back to the slower surer way; but my own is always
tried first, as involuntarily as I hurled myself down that slope, as if
storming a fort instead of meeting my sweetheart. That is a pretty old
word beloved of better men than I, so let me use it once. Among the
first persons I met on landing was a friend of your father's; he was
just driving away in hot haste, but catching a glimpse of the familiar
face, I bethought me that it was the season for summer travel, you might
be away, and no one else would satisfy me; he might know, and time be
saved. I asked one question, 'Where are the Yules?' He answered, as he
vanished, 'The young p