I did it myself, remember, because, as I told you, I
do not think that any one woman has a right to place her individual
happiness before the welfare of her family. And I am only sorry," she
added, her voice breaking a little, "that what I have done should
bring suffering upon you."
He groaned again, but said nothing.
"We must try to forget," she went on wildly. "Oh no! no! I feel it is
not possible that we should forget. You won't forget me, Harold, will
you? And though it must be all over between us, and we must never
speak like this again--never--you will always know I have not
forgotten you, will you not, but that I think of you always?"
"There is no fear of my forgetting," he said, "and I am selfish enough
to hope that you will think of me at times, Ida."
"Yes, indeed I will. We all have our burdens to bear. It is a hard
world, and we must bear them. And it will all be the same in the end,
in just a few years. I daresay these dead people here have felt as we
feel, and how quiet they are! And perhaps there may be something
beyond, where things are not so. Who can say? You won't go away from
this place, Harold, will you? Not until I am married at any rate;
perhaps you had better go then. Say that you won't go till then, and
you will let me see you sometimes; it is a comfort to see you.
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