Dawn Eleanor Porter (free novels to read txt) 📖

"Keith, I did NOT—er—it was not a proposal of marriage."

"No? But you're going to marry me, aren't you?"

Her chin came up.

"I—I shall wait till I'm asked," she retorted with dignity.

"Hm-m; well, I reckon it's safe to say you'll be asked. And so I oweit all to Susan. Well, it isn't the first good thing I've owed to her—bless her heart! And she's equal to 'most anything. But I'll wager,in this case, that even Susan had some stunt to perform. How did shedo it?"

"She told me that you—you thought your father and I cared for eachother, and that—that you cared for me; but that you were very braveand were going to go away, and—leave us to our happiness. Then, whenshe found there was nothing to the other part of it, and that I—Icared for you, she—well, I don't know how she did it, but she said—well, I did it. That's all."

Keith chuckled.

"Exactly! You couldn't have described it better. We've always donewhat Susan wanted us to, and we never could tell why. We—we just didit. That's all. And, oh, I'm so glad you did this, little girl, soglad!"

"Yes, but—-" She drew away from him a little, and her voice becameseverely accusing. "Keith Burton, you—you should have done ityourself, and you know it."

He shook his head.

"I couldn't." A swift shadow fell like a cloud over his countenance.

"Darling, even now—Dorothy, do you fully realize what you are doing?

All your life to be tied—-"

"Hush!" Her finger was on his lips only to be kissed till she took itaway. "I won't let you talk like that a minute—not a single minute!But, Keith, there is something I want you to say." Her voice was halfpleading, half whimsical. Her eyes, through her tears, were studyinghis face, turned partly away from her. "Confession is good for thesoul."

"Well? Anything more?" He smiled faintly.

"Yes; only this time it's you. YOU'VE got to do it."

"I?"

"Yes." Her voice rang with firm decision. "Keith, I want to know why—

why all this time you've acted so—so that I had to find out through

Susan that you—cared. And I want to know—when you stopped hating me.

And—-"

"Dorothy—I never, never hated you!" cut in the man passionately.

"But you acted as if you did. Why, you—you wouldn't let me come nearyou, and you were so—angry with me."

"Yes, I—know." The man fell back in his chair and was silent.

There was a long minute of waiting.

"Keith."

"Yes, dear."

"I confessed mine, and yours can't be any harder than—mine was."

Still he hesitated; then, with a long breath he began to speak.

"Dorothy, it—it's just that I've had so much to fight. And—it hasn'tbeen easy. But, listen, dear. I think I've loved you from away back inthe days when you wore your hair in two thick pigtails down your back.You know I was only fourteen when—when the shadows began to come. Oneday, away back then, I saw you shudder once at—blindness. We weretalking about old Joe Harrington. And I never forgot it."

"But it was only because I pitied him."

"Yes; but I thought then that it was more aversion. You said youcouldn't bear to look at them. And you see I feared, even then, that Iwas going to be like old Joe some time."

"Oh, Keith!"

"Well, it came. I was like old Joe—blind. And I knew that I was theobject of curiosity and pity, and, I believed, aversion, wherever Iwent. And, oh, I so hated it! I didn't want to be stared at, andpointed out, and pitied. I didn't want to be different. And above allI didn't want to know that you were turning away from me in aversionand disgust."

"Oh, Keith, Keith, as if I ever could!" faltered the girl.

"I thought you could—and would. I used to picture you all in thedark, as I used to see you with your bright eyes and pretty hair, andI could see the look on your face as you turned away shuddering.That's when I determined at all costs to keep out of your sight—untilI should be well again. I was going to be well, of course, then, youknow. Well, in time I went West, and on the way I met—Miss Stewart."

"Yes." Dorothy's voice was not quite steady.

"I liked Miss Stewart. She was wonderfully good to me. At first—atthe very first—she gave me quite a start. Her voice sounded so muchlike—Dorothy Parkman's. But very soon I forgot that, and just gavemyself up to the enjoyment of her companionship. I wasn't afraid withher—that her eyes were turned away in aversion and disgust. Some way,I just knew that she wasn't like—Dorothy Parkman. You see, I hadn'tforgotten Dorothy. Some day I was going back to her—seeing.

"Well, you know what happened—the operations, the specialists, theyears of waiting, the trip to London, then home, hopelessly blind. Itwas not easy then, Dorothy, but—I tried to be a man. Most of all Ifelt for—dad. He'd had so many hopes—But, never mind; and, anyhow,what Susan said the other day helped—But this has nothing to do withyou, dear. To go on: I gave you up then definitely. I know that allthe while I'd been having you back in my mind, young as I was—thatsome day I was going to be big and strong and rich and have my eyes;and that then I was going to ask you to marry me. But when I got home,hopelessly blind, that ended it. I didn't believe you would have me,anyway; but even if you would, I wasn't going to give you the chanceof always having to turn away in aversion and disgust from the sightof your husband."

"Oh, Keith, how could you!"

"I couldn't. But you see how I felt. Then, one day I heard MissStewart's voice in the hall, and, oh, how good it sounded to me! Ithink I must have caught her hand very much as the drowning man graspsat the straw. SHE would never turn away from me! With her I felt safe,happy, and at peace. I don't think I exactly understood my state ofmind myself. I didn't think I was in love with her, yet with