To the day of his death Selwyn Grant will firmly believe that if he had not clutched fast hold of the top bar of the gate he would have tumbled down on the moss under the beeches in speechless astonishment . All the surprises of that surprising evening were as nothing to this . He had a swift conviction that there were no words in the English language that could fully express his feelings and that it would be a waste of time to try to find any . Therefore he laid hold of the first baldly commonplace ones that came handy and said tamely , `` I thought you were married to Tom . '' `` You -- thought -- I -- was -- married -- to -- Tom ! '' repeated Esme slowly . `` And have you thought that all these years , Selwyn Grant ? '' `` Yes , I have . Is it any wonder ? You were engaged to Tom when I went away , Jenny told me you were . And a year later Bertha wrote me a letter in which she made some reference to Tom 's marriage . She did n't say to whom , but had n't I the right to suppose it was to you ? '' `` Oh ! '' The word was partly a sigh and partly a little cry of long-concealed , long-denied pain . `` It 's been all a funny misunderstanding . Tom and I were engaged once -- a boy-and-girl affair in the beginning . Then we both found out that we had made a mistake -- that what we had thought was love was merely the affection of good comrades . We broke our engagement shortly before you went away . All the older girls knew it was broken but I suppose nobody mentioned the matter to Jen . She was such a child , we never thought about her .
And you 've thought I was XXXXX 's wife all this time ?
Bertha English Esme Grant Jen Jenny Tom beeches first years