She turned her face quickly, the color leaving her cheeks as if alarmed. Had he been behaving badly again? But he swept it away with his next sentence.
“You see, my father refused to pay any of the bills I owed and Uncle George paid them for me--and I can't have that go on a day longer--certainly not now.”
Kate's shoulders relaxed. A sigh of relief spent itself; Harry was still an honest gentleman, whatever else he might have done!
“And now comes the worst of it, Kate.” His voice sank almost to a whisper, as if even the birds should not hear this part of his confession: “Yes--the worst of it--that I have had all this to suffer--all this misery to endure--all these insults of my father to bear without you! Always, before, we have talked things out together; then you were shut away and I could only look up at your windows and rack my brain wondering where you were and what you were doing. It's all over now--you love somebody else--but I shall never love anybody else: I can't! I don't want to! You are the last thing I kiss before I close my eyes; I shut them and kiss only the air--but it is your lips I feel; and you are the first thing I open them upon when I wake. It will always be so, Kate--you are my body, my soul, and my life. I shall never have you again, I know, but I shall have your memory, and that is sweeter and more precious to me than all else in the world!”
“Harry!” There was a strange cadence in her voice--not of self-defence--not of recrimination--only of overwhelming pity: “Don't you think that I too have had my troubles? Do you think it was nothing to me to love you as I did and have--” She stopped, drew in her breath as if to bolster up some inward resolution, and then with a brave lift of the head added: “No, I won't go into that--not to-day.”
“Yes--tell me all of it--you can't hurt me more than you have done. But you may be right--no, we won't talk of that part of it. And now, Kate, I won't ask you to stay any longer; I am glad I saw you--it was better than writing.” He leaned forward: “Let me look into your face once more, won't you?--so I can remember the better.... Yes--the same dear eyes--and the hair growing low on the temples, and the beautiful mouth and--No--I sha'n't forget--I never have.” He rose from his seat and held out his hand: “You'll take it, won't you?--just once--Good-by!”