"
Manuel paused suddenly, for as if obeying an unconquerable impulse,
Pauline laid a hand on either shoulder and searched his face with an
expression which baffled his comprehension, though he bore it steadily
till her eyes fell before his own, when he asked smilingly:
"Is the doubt destroyed, carina?"
"No; it is laid asleep."
Then as he drew her nearer, as if to make his peace for his unknown
offense, she turned her cheek away and left him silently. Did she fear
to find Babie's kiss upon his lips?
Chapter IV
The work of weeks is soon recorded, and when another month was gone
these were the changes it had wrought. The four so strangely bound
together by ties of suffering and sin went on their way, to the world's
eye, blessed with every gracious gift, but below the tranquil surface
rolled that undercurrent whose mysterious tides ebb and flow in human
hearts unfettered by race or rank or time. Gilbert was a good actor,
but, though he curbed his fitful temper, smoothed his mien, and
sweetened his manner, his wife soon felt the vanity of hoping to recover
that which never had been hers. Silently she accepted the fact and,
uttering no complaint, turned to others for the fostering warmth without
which she could not live. Conscious of a hunger like her own, Manuel
could offer her sincerest sympathy, and soon learned to find a troubled
pleasure in the knowledge that she loved him and her husband knew it,
for his life of the emotions was rapidly maturing the boy into the man,
as the fierce ardors of his native skies quicken the growth of wondrous
plants that blossom in a night.
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