It was a long time ere that interview ended, but when it did there was
on Maddy's face a peaceful expression, which only the sense of having
done right at the cost of a fearful sacrifice could give, while Guy's
bore traces of a great and crushing sorrow, as he went out from
Maddy's presence and felt that to him she was lost forever. He had
promised her he would do right; had said he would marry Lucy, being to
her what a husband should be; had listened while she talked of another
world, where they neither marry nor are given in marriage, and where
it would not be sinful for them to love each other, and as she talked
her face had shone like the face of an angel. He had held one of her
hands at parting, bending low his head, while she laid the other on it
as she blessed him, letting her snowy fingers thread his soft brown
hair and linger caressingly among his curly locks. But that was over
now. They had parted forever. She was lying where he left her, cold,
and white, and faint with dizzy pain. He was riding swiftly toward
Aikenside, his heart beats keeping time to the swift tread of his
horse's feet, and his mind a confused medley of distracted thoughts,
amid which two facts stood out prominent and clear-he had lost Maddy
Clyde, and had promised her to marry Lucy Atherstone.
For many days after that Guy kept his room, saying he was sick, and
refusing to see any one save Jessie and Mrs. Noah, the latter of whom
guessed in part what had happened, and imputing to him far more credit
than he deserved, petted and pitied and cared for him until he grew
weary of it, and said to her savagely: "You needn't think me so good,
for I am not. I wanted Maddy Clyde, and told her so, but she refused
me and made me promise to marry Lucy; so I'm going to do that very
thing--going to England in a few weeks, or as soon as Maddy is better,
and before the sun of this year sets I shall be a married man."
After this all Mrs. Noah's sympathy was in favor of Maddy, the good
lady making more than one pilgrimage to Honedale, where she expended
all her arguments trying to make Maddy revoke her decision; but Maddy
was firm in what she deemed right, and as her health began slowly to
improve, and there was no longer an excuse for Guy to tarry, he gave
out to the neighborhood that he was at last to be married, and started
for England the latter part of October, as unhappy and unwilling a
bridegroom, it may be, as ever wait after a bride.