`` If you had even told me , '' he said . `` You said I was never to try to look on your face again -- and they told me you had gone away . You sent me back my ring . '' `` I kept the old one , '' she interrupted , holding out her hand , `` the first one you ever gave me -- do you remember , Walter ? When we were boy and girl . '' `` You robbed me of all that made life worth while , Avery . Do you wonder that I 've been a bitter man ? '' `` I was wrong -- I was wrong , '' she sobbed . `` I should have believed in you . But do n't you think I 've paid , too ? Forgive me , Walter -- it 's too late to atone -- but forgive me . '' '' Is it too late ? '' he asked gravely . She pointed to the scar . `` Could you endure seeing this opposite to you every day at your table ? '' she asked bitterly . `` Yes -- if I could see your sweet eyes and your beloved smile with it , Avery , '' he answered passionately . `` Oh , Avery , it was you I loved -- not your outward favor . Oh , how foolish you were -- foolish and morbid ! You always put too high a value on beauty , Avery .
If I had dreamed of the true state of the case -- if I had known you were here all these years -- why I heard a rumor long ago that you had married , Avery -- but XXXXX I had known I would have come to you and made you be -- sensible . ''
Walter at day if in of on that to with