Page:The Redemption of Anthony (1911).djvu/134

 listen. It seems best that there should be truth between us at last. Years ago, when Tony first began to monopolize my life, I knew that I loved him, and after a year of bitter suffering I realized that he did not love me. After awhile I grew to believe that even a love that is unreturned was better than no love at all. Then you came, and battered down the ramparts I had so carefully built around my heart, and crept inside. There was only room for you and Tony.

"It was fate, I suppose, that decreed that Tony should fall in love with you. I had given him all there was in me, mentally and emotionally, and now it was left me to give him—you. I knew he had come to the time when he needed this tardy awakening. You were young, impressionable, fond of him. I was not sure that you could fill his life alone, but I could help you, always hiding my secret. There was no sacrifice of you, Priscilla."

"No, there was not," she admitted; "but