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Cumner's Son and Other South Sea Folk — Volume 03 by Gilbert Parker
page 7 of 53 (13%)
"The morning that I married you." His voice was thick with misery.

She became white and dazed. "Before--or after?" she asked. He paused a
moment, looking steadily at her, and answered, "Before."

She drew back as though she had been struck. "Good God!" she cried.
"Why did he not--" she paused.

"Why did he not marry you himself?" he rejoined.

"You must ask him that yourself, if you do not know."

"And yet you married me, knowing all--that he loved me," she gasped.

"I would have married you then, knowing a thousand times that."

She cowered, but presently advanced to him. "You have sinned as much as
I," she said. "Do you dare pay the penalty?"

"Do I dare ride with you to the cliff--and beyond?" Her lips framed a
reply, but no sound came.

"But we will wait till to-morrow," he said absently.

"Why not to-day?" she painfully asked.

"We will wait till to-morrow," he urged, and his eyes followed the trail
of a horseman on the hill.

"Why not while we have courage?" she persisted, as though the suspense
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