But she
would not let him know it. He did not love her as she had
sometimes foolishly fancied he did; and lifting up her head she
answered him proudly,
"Yes, Arthur St. Claire, when Richard Harrington asks me to be his
bride I will not tell him no. Are you satisfied?"
"I am," he said, though his white lips gave the lie to the words
he uttered, and his heart smote him cruelly for his selfishness in
wishing to save himself by sacrificing Edith; and it would be a
sacrifice, he knew--a fearful sacrifice, the giving her to a blind
man, old enough to be her sire, noble, generous and good, though
he were.
It was a little singular that Arthur's arm should still linger
about the waist of one who had promised to be another's wife,
provided she were asked, but so it was; it staid there, while he
persuaded her to come again to Grassy Spring, and not to give up
the lessons so pleasant to them both.
He was bending very near to her when a sound upon the stairs
caught his ear. It was the same German air Edith had heard in the
yard, and she listened breathlessly while it came nearer to the
door.
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