CHAPTER XXXVI.
GOOD-BYE
"But the big house for Dr. Harry is still empty when he returns from his
long drives; empty save for his dreams."
When Hope Farwell dismissed Dan that afternoon in the old Academy yard,
because she feared both for her lover and for herself, she had not for a
moment questioned what Dan's decision would be. With all the gladness
that their love had brought, there was in her heart no hope; for she
exacted of herself the same fidelity to her religious convictions that
she demanded of Dan. It would be as wrong for her to accept the church
as for him to reject it. So she had gone to the limit of her strength
for his sake. But when she reached again the privacy of her room, her
woman nature had its way. With the morning, strength returned
again--strength and calmness. Quietly she went about; for, while she had
left the whole burden of decision upon Dan, her heart was with her lover
in his fight.
At the appointed hour she left her friends in the garden and went into
the house as she had planned. She did not expect him but she had said
that she would wait his coming. Her heart beat painfully as the slow
minutes passed, bringing by his absence, proof that she had not misjudged
him. Then she went outside and looking up saw him standing at his window;
smiling, she even beckoned to him. She wished to make the victory
certain, final and complete. Very quietly she returned to her room. She
did not again enter the garden.
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