That seems the simple and just way, doesn't it?"
"Any way seems just, I'd say," he said. "They love one another, so
what's the odds? Do you know Reddon well?"
"I have seen him many times," she replied with apparent evasiveness.
"He is a--" but here he stopped as if paralysis had seized him suddenly.
The truth shot into his brain like a deadly bolt. Everything was as
plain as day to him now. She stooped to pick up a slim, broken reed that
crossed her path, and her face was averted. "God!" was the cry that
almost escaped his lips. "She loves Reddon, and he is going to marry her
best friend!" Cold perspiration started from every pore in his body. He
had met the doom of love--the end of hope.
"He has always loved her," said Rosalie so calmly that he was shocked by
her courage. "I hope she will not ask him to wait."
Rosalie never understood why Bonner looked at her in amazement and said:
"By Jove, you are a--a marvel, Rosalie!"
CHAPTER XXVIII
The Blind Man's Eyes
Bonner went away without another word of love to her. He saw the
futility of hoping, and he was noble enough to respect her plea for
silence on the subject that seemed distasteful to her. He went as one
conquered and subdued; he went with the iron in his heart for the first
time--deeply imbedded and racking.
Bonner came twice from the place across the river.
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