`` Thank God , '' said he , under his breath . And then he pulled me into the parlor and shut the door . `` They told me at the station that Phillippa was to be married to Mark Foster to-day . I could n't believe it , but I came here as fast as horse-flesh could bring me . Aunt Rachel , it ca n't be true ! She ca n't care for Mark Foster , even if she had forgotten me ! '' `` It 's true enough that she is to marry Mark , '' I said , half-laughing , half-crying , `` but she does n't care for him . Every beat of her heart is for you . It 's all her stepma 's doings . Mark has got a mortgage on the place , and he told Isabella Clark that , if Phillippa would marry him , he 'd burn the mortgage , and , if she would n't , he 'd foreclose . Phillippa is sacrificing herself to save her stepma for her dead father 's sake . It 's all your fault , '' I cried , getting over my bewilderment . `` We thought you were dead . Why did n't you come home when you were alive ? Why did n't you write ? '' `` I DID write , after I got out of the hospital , several times , '' he said , `` and never a word in answer , Aunt Rachel . What was I to think when Phillippa would n't answer my letters ? '' `` She never got one , '' I cried . `` She wept her sweet eyes out over you . SOMEBODY must have got those letters . ''
And I knew then , and I know now , though never a shadow of proof have I , that Isabella XXXXX had got them -- and kept them .
Clark Foster Mark Phillippa Rachel burn half-crying half-laughing horse-flesh stepma