couldn't be taken back.

"I said to myself, If I can stand it, if I can hold out as I feel now, I
will marry him; then let come what may. I knew that some things would come,
some things that I wanted very much.

"Then came the strange delay, the silence, the wretched telegrams and
letters back and forth. Ah, dear, do I make you cry? Don't cry for him; you
have not lost him. Cry for me, the girl you thought was good and pure and
true! You know what I did then, when your dear letter came, giving me all
he had, calling me your daughter, all that was left you of John! I deceived
you in your grief, hating myself and loving you all the time. And here I
am, in this place! Do you wonder I had to speak?"

"Your words are literally as blows to me, Daphne," Mr. Withers groaned,
covering his face. After a while he said, "All I have in the world would
have been yours and your mother's had you come to me, or had I suspected
the trouble you were in. I ought to have been more observant. My
prepossessions must be very strong; doubtless some of the readier faculties
have been left out in my mental constitution. I hear you say these words,
but even now they are losing their meaning for me. I can see that your
distress is genuine, and I must suppose that you have referred it to its
proper cause; but I cannot master the fact itself. You must give me time to
realize it. This takes much out of life for me."

"Not my love for _you_, uncle John; there has been no falsehood there."

"You could not have spared yourself and me this confession?" the old man
queried. "But no, God forgive me! You must have suffered grievous things in
your young conscience, my dear; this was an ugly spot to hide. But now you