Page:The Woman in White.djvu/250

 may find it cooler in the open space than we find it here."

We walked through the shadowy plantation in silence. The heaviness in the evening air oppressed us both, and when we reached the boat-house we were glad to sit down and rest inside.

A white fog hung low over the lake. The dense brown line of the trees on the opposite bank appeared above it, like a dwarf forest floating in the sky. The sandy ground, shelving downward from where we sat, was lost mysteriously in the outward layers of the fog. The silence was horrible. No rustling of the leaves&mdash;no bird's note in the wood&mdash;no cry of water-fowl from the pools of the hidden lake. Even the croaking of the frogs had ceased to- night.

"It is very desolate and gloomy," said Laura. "But we can be more alone here than anywhere else."

She spoke quietly and looked at the wilderness of sand and mist with steady, thoughtful eyes. I could see that her mind was too much occupied to feel the dreary impressions from without which had fastened themselves already on mine.

"I promised, Marian, to tell you the truth about my married life, instead of leaving you any longer to guess it for yourself," she began. "That secret is the first I have ever had from you, love, and I am determined it shall be the last. I was silent, as you know, for your sake&mdash;and perhaps a little for my own sake as well. It is very hard for a woman to confess that the man to whom she has given her whole life is the man of all others who cares least for the gift. If you were married yourself, Marian&mdash;and especially if you were happily married&mdash;you would feel for me as no single woman CAN feel, however kind and true she may be."

What answer could I make? I could only take her hand and look at her with my whole heart as well as my eyes would let me.

"How often," she went on, "I have heard you laughing over what you used to call your 'poverty!' how often you have made me mock- speeches of congratulation on my wealth! Oh, Marian, never laugh again. Thank God for your poverty&mdash;it has made you your own mistress, and has saved you from the lot that has fallen on ME."

A sad beginning on the lips of a young wife!&mdash;sad in its quiet plain-spoken truth. The few days we had all passed together at Blackwater Park had been many enough to show me&mdash;to show any one&mdash; what her husband had married her for.