Oh, if you only knew what I am!"
"It is not what you are, it is who you are, that brings you here, Daphne."
"Yes, who I am! Who am I? What right had I to come here? I never loved him.
I never was engaged to him, but I let you think so. When you wrote me that
sweet letter and called me your daughter, why didn't I tell you the truth?
Because in that same letter you offered me his money--and--and I wanted the
money. I lied to you then, when you were in the first of your grief, to
get his money! I have been trying to live up to that He ever since. It has
almost killed me; it has killed every bit of truth and decent womanly pride
in me. I want you to save me from it before I grow any worse. You must take
back the money. It did one good thing: it paid those selfish debts of mine,
and it made mother well. What has been spent I will work for and pay back
as I can. But I love _you_, uncle John; there has been no falsehood there."
"This is the language of sheer insanity, Daphne, of mental excitement that
passes reason." Mr. Withers spoke in a carefully controlled but quivering
voice--as a man who has been struck an unexpected and staggering blow,
but considering the quarter it came from, is prepared to treat it as an
accident.
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