'
' - And make me a proud, and happy man again, Grace. Did she say
so?'
'She meant, to make myself so blest and honoured in your love,' was
his wife's answer, as he held her in his arms.
'Hear me, my dear!' he said. - 'No. Hear me so!' - and as he
spoke, he gently laid the head she had raised, again upon his
shoulder. 'I know why I have never heard this passage in the
letter, until now. I know why no trace of it ever showed itself in
any word or look of yours at that time. I know why Grace, although
so true a friend to me, was hard to win to be my wife. And knowing
it, my own! I know the priceless value of the heart I gird within
my arms, and thank GOD for the rich possession!'
She wept, but not for sorrow, as he pressed her to his heart.
After a brief space, he looked down at the child, who was sitting
at their feet playing with a little basket of flowers, and bade her
look how golden and how red the sun was.
'Alfred,' said Grace, raising her head quickly at these words.
'The sun is going down. You have not forgotten what I am to know
before it sets.'
'You are to know the truth of Marion's history, my love,' he
answered.
'All the truth,' she said, imploringly. 'Nothing veiled from me,
any more. That was the promise. Was it not?'
'It was,' he answered.
'Before the sun went down on Marion's birth-day.
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