NEW YORK, June 14, 18--.
To-morrow I am to take my old name of Thornton again, and be Guy's wife
once more. Nor does it seem strange at all that I should do so, for I
have never thought of myself as not belonging to him, even when I knew
he was another's. And yet when in that dreadful night at Saratoga I went
to Julia's room, there was in my heart no thought of this which has come
to me. I only wished to care for her and to be a help to Guy. I did not
think of her dying, and after she was dead there was not a thought of
the future in my mind until little Daisy put it there by asking if I
would be her mamma. Then I seemed to see it all, and expected it up to
the very day, six weeks ago, when Guy wrote to me: "Daisy, I want you.
Will you come to me again as my wife?"
I was not surprised. I knew he would say it some time, and I replied at
once, "Yes, Guy, I will."
He has been here since, and we have talked it over; all the past when I
made him so unhappy, and when I, too, was so wretched, though I did not
say much about that, or tell him of the dull, heavy, gnawing pain which,
sleeping or waking, I carried with me so long, and only lost when I
began to live for others. I did speak of the letter, and said I had
loved him ever since I wrote it, and that his marrying Julia made no
difference; and when I told him of poor Tom, and what I said to him, not
from love, but from a sense of duty, and when I told him how Tom would
not take me at my word, he held me close to him and said: "I am glad he
did not, my darling, for then you would never have been mine."
I think we both wept over those two graves, one far off in sunny France,
the other in Saratoga, and both felt how sad it was that they must be
made in order to bring us together. Poor Julia! She was a noble woman,
and Guy did love her. He told me so, and I am glad he did. I mean to try
to be like her in those parts wherein she excelled me.
We are going straight to Cuylerville to the house where I never was but
once, and that on the night when Guy was sick and Miss Frances made me
go back in the thunder and rain. She is sorry for that, for she told me
so in the long, kind letter she wrote, calling me her little sister and
telling me how glad she is to have me back once more. Accidentally I
heard Elmwood was for sale, and without letting Guy know I bought it,
and sent him the deed, and we are going to make it the most attractive
place in the country.