It had been threatening all the afternoon. The wind soughed; it
was going to be a wild night.
"Mr. Dawson has been with me this afternoon," he went on. "We talked of
you, Bawn. Bawn, child, Richard Dawson wishes to marry you. Can you
marry him, Bawn? If you can do it Garret Dawson gives up to me on your
wedding-day certain documents which hold in them the disgrace of our
family. We are old, Bawn, and we have loved you and been good to you.
There are some things we could not bear. Child, can you say 'Yes?'"
I felt now as though I had known it all the time. I had a queer memory
of a room in which a man lay imprisoned, the walls of which came closer
and closer every day till they should press him to death. It was a tale
I had read somewhere. So this had been closing in on me all those
months. I was to marry Richard Dawson, I who loved Anthony Cardew with
all my heart and soul.
CHAPTER XXV
THE LOVER
"And Theobald," I asked, after that pause--"what about Theobald?"
"Theobald is young. He has a thousand chances of happiness," answered my
grandfather, somewhat eagerly. "If he could know he would be the first
to sacrifice himself to prevent the disgrace.
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