I'd about spent my hour and was turning back to the house half a mile
below when Jenny herself came along, well knowing where I was; and so I
wasted no words, but prepared to strike while the thought of her set
uppermost in my mind. She spoke first, however, and much surprised me.
'Twas her way of breaking into the matter did so, and she well knew that
what she had to tell would let the cat out of the bag.
"William," she said, "I couldn't bear for you to hear the thing what's
happened except from me, and I want for you to be merciful to all
concerned."
She was excited and her hair waving in the autumn wind so brown as the
falling leaves. Her eyes were wild also, and her mouth down-drawn, and a
good bit of misery looked out of her face.
"I'm known for a merciful man where mercy may be called for, my lovely
dear," I said to her. "Us'll walk up and down my path once more since
you've come. I've long known there was a lot on your mind and went so far
as to ask your father what it might be; but he only said 'twas your
conscience up against you leaving him."
"'Tis my conscience all right," she answered, "but not like that--a long
sight more crueller than that. Tom Bond has gone to see father this
afternoon and--oh, William, I wish I was dead!"
I kept my nerve, for that was the only hope in her present frame of mind.
"'Tis a very ill-convenient thing for my future wife to wish she was
dead," I told her; "and why for has Tom gone to see your father? Mr.
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