"After he was well enough to be taken home, I never saw Margaret until
that morning after the snow-storm. I was very eager to go for her, for I
felt sure, from what Mr. Nathaniel had said during the night, that she
was the same.

"Riding along, she told me all about Arthur's course, and the grief he
had caused them ever since. It had made her mother ill. He was roaming
about the country, always in trouble, and it was on his account that she
stayed behind, when her father and mother went South. She said he must
have some one to befriend him in case of need.

"And here," continued he, "was where I took a wrong step. I begged
Margaret not to speak of our former acquaintance. I could not bear to
have you all know. I was afraid Mary would despise me, she was so pure.

"Margaret was willing to keep silence about it, for she would rather not
have the people know of her brother. He would have been the talk of the
neighborhood. Everybody would have been pitying her. She used to like to
speak of him to me, because I was the only one who knew the
circumstances.

"But don't think," he continued, earnestly, "that I would have married
Mary and never told her. We had a long, beautiful talk the last evening.
I had never before spoken quite freely of my feelings, though she must
have seen what they were. But that night I told everything,--my past
life, and all. And she forgave all, because she loved me.

"I meant to tell you as soon as we were off; but you turned the cold
shoulder,--you would not talk about home."