"There is only one thing for us to do
when we are in any doubt or perplexity," he said cheerily, "and that
is the unselfish thing."
"Yes," she gasped; she seemed to be speaking to herself. "I saw it,
I knew it! Even if it kills us, we must do it! Nothing ought to
weigh against it! Oh, I thank you!"
Sewell was puzzled. He felt dimly that she was thanking him for
anguish and despair. "I'm afraid that I don't quite understand you."
"I thought I told you," she answered, with a certain reproach, and a
fall of courage in view of the fresh effort she must make. It was
some moments before she could say, "If you knew that some one--some
one who was--everything to you--and that you knew--believed--"
At fifty it is hard to be serious about these things, and it was
well for the girl that she was no longer conscious of Sewell's mood.
"--Cared for you; and if you knew that before he had cared for you
there had been some else--some else that he was as much to as he was
to you, and that couldn't give him up, what--should you--"
Sewell fetched a long sigh of relief; he had been afraid of a much
darker problem than this. He almost smiled.
"My dear child,"--she seemed but a child there before the mature man
with her poor little love-trouble, so intricate and hopeless to her,
so simple and easy to him--"that depends upon a great many
circumstances.
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