There was no way for me to flee, except seaward; and of two
suicides I chose the pleasanter, and I stayed.
"'Who is it, Mary?' I had time to question, and she to answer.
"'It is Bernard McKey; he has come to study medicine in papa's office;
he came the night Alice died.'
"He was too near to permit of questioning more, and so I stood upon the
seashore and saw my fate coming close.
"Mary simply said, 'Good evening,' to him, followed by the requisite
introductory words that form the basis of acquaintance.
"'I think Miss Axtell and I scarcely need an introduction,' he said;
nevertheless he looked the pleasure it had strewed into his field, and
guarded it, as a careful husbandman would choicest seed.
"He asked the style of question which monosyllables can never answer, to
which responding, one has to offer somewhat of herself; and all the
time of that sombre autumn, there grew from out the chasm of the
lightning-stroke luxuriant foliage. I gave it all the resistance of my
nature, yet I knew, as the consumptive knows, that I should be conquered
by my conqueror.
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