"
"Why should we not have done what--what is it that you mean?" I demanded
of her.
"Why, there was she, engaged to Mr. Belknap, as I am told; and there
were you, engaged to a certain young lady by the name of Grace Sheraton,
very far away. And you were conveniently lost--very conveniently--and
you found each other's society agreeable. You kept away for some weeks
or months, both of you forgetting. It was idyllic--ideal. You were not
precisely babes in the woods. You were a man and a woman. I presume you
enjoyed yourselves, after a very possible little fashion--I do not blame
you--I say I might have done the same. I should like to know it for a
time myself--freedom! I do not blame you. Only," she said slowly, "in
society we do not have freedom. Here it is different. I suppose
different laws apply, different customs!"
"Miss Grace," said I, "I do not in the least understand you. You are not
the same girl I left."
"No, I am not. But that is not my fault. Can not a woman be free as much
as a man? Have I not right as much as you? Have you not been free?"
"One thing only I want to say," I rejoined, "and it is this, which I
ought not to say at all. If you mean anything regarding Ellen
Meriwether, I have to tell you, or any one, that she is clean--mind,
body, soul, heart--as clean as when I saw her first.
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