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Bates, Arlo, 1850-1918

"The Puritans"

"
She flushed to her temples, starting impulsively in her seat.
"Mr. Ashe," she said vehemently, "what right have you to talk to me of
such subjects at all?"
"None," he answered, "none at all,--unless--None that you would
recognize; but I wish to atone for the wrong I did in speaking to you,
and to say what he would never say. If it were possible that you cared
for him, I should perhaps help you both."
"You forget, I think, that I have been married."
"I do not forget anything," Philip returned desperately. "It is only
that he is a good man, a noble man, a man that would never have fallen
under his weakness as I did, and if you cared for him, he is too fine
to be allowed to suffer. He loved you long before I ever saw you."
"He has never given me any sign of it."
Her flushed cheeks and something in the way in which she said this
seemed to him to indicate that she did love Candish. He had been moved
by the most sincere desire to sacrifice his own will and happiness to
the well-being of the woman he loved, and if it were that she loved his
rival he had been ready to forget everything but that.


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