“Why didn’t you ask me before?”
she said slowly.
“I couldn’t. She made me promise
not to—mother made me promise not to.
Nineteen years ago she took a terrible spell.
We thought she couldn’t live through it.
She implored me to promise not to ask you to marry
me while she was alive. I didn’t want to
promise such a thing, even though we all thought she
couldn’t live very long—the doctor
only gave her six months. But she begged it on
her knees, sick and suffering. I had to promise.”
“What had your mother against me?” cried
Janet.
“Nothing—nothing. She just didn’t
want another woman—any woman—there
while she was living. She said if I didn’t
promise she’d die right there and I’d
have killed her. So I promised. And she’s
held me to that promise ever since, though I’ve
gone on my knees to her in my turn to beg her to let
me off.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this?” asked
Janet chokingly. “If I’d only known!
Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“She made me promise I wouldn’t tell a
soul,” said John hoarsely. “She swore
me to it on the Bible; Janet, I’d never have
done it if I’d dreamed it was to be for so long.
Janet, you’ll never know what I’ve suffered
these nineteen years. I know I’ve made you
suffer, too, but you’ll marry me for all, won’t
you, Janet? Oh, Janet, won’t you? I’ve
come as soon as I could to ask you.”
At this moment the stupefied Anne came to her senses
and realized that she had no business to be there.
She slipped away and did not see Janet until the next
morning, when the latter told her the rest of the story.
“That cruel, relentless, deceitful old woman!”
cried Anne.
“Hush—she’s dead,” said
Janet solemnly. “If she wasn’t—but
she is. So we mustn’t speak evil of
her. But I’m happy at last, Anne. And
I wouldn’t have minded waiting so long a bit
if I’d only known why.”
“When are you to be married?”
“Next month. Of course it will be very
quiet. I suppose people will talk terrible.
They’ll say I made enough haste to snap John
up as soon as his poor mother was out of the way.
John wanted to let them know the truth but I said,
’No, John; after all she was your mother, and
we’ll keep the secret between us, and not cast
any shadow on her memory. I don’t mind
what people say, now that I know the truth myself.
It don’t matter a mite. Let it all be buried
with the dead’ says I to him. So I coaxed
him round to agree with me.”
“You’re much more forgiving than I could
ever be,” Anne said, rather crossly.
“You’ll feel differently about a good
many things when you get to be my age,” said
Janet tolerantly. “That’s one of the
things we learn as we grow older—how to
forgive. It comes easier at forty than it did
at twenty.”
The Last Redmond Year Opens
“Here we are, all back again, nicely sunburned
and rejoicing as a strong man to run a race,”
said Phil, sitting down on a suitcase with a sigh of
pleasure. “Isn’t it jolly to see this
dear old Patty’s Place again—and
Aunty—and the cats? Rusty has lost
another piece of ear, hasn’t he?”
