V
And during these days when Judge Morris was speaking his mind about
old tragedies that never change, and new virtues--about scandal and
guilt and innocence--it was during these days that the scandal
started and spread and did its work on the boy he loved--and no one
had told him.
The summer was drawing to an end. During the last days of it Kate
wrote to Isabel:
"I could not have believed, dearest friend, that so long a time
would pass without my writing. Since you went away it has been
eternity. And many things have occurred which no one foresaw or
imagined. I cannot tell you how often I have resisted the impulse
to write. Perhaps I should resist now; but there are some matters
which you ought to understand; and I do not believe that any one
else has told you or will tell you. If I, your closest friend,
have shrunk, how could any one else be expected to perform the duty?
"A week or two after you left I understood why you went away
mysteriously, and why during that last visit to me you were unlike
yourself. I did not know then that your gayety was assumed, and
that you were broken-hearted beneath your brave disguises. But I
remember your saying that some day I should know. The whole truth
has come out as to why you broke your engagement with Rowan, and
why you left home. You can form no idea what a sensation the news
produced. For a while nothing else was talked of, and I am glad
for your sake that you were not here.
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