I asked you for
money to help a poor family in trouble, and you refused to give it to
me."
"No, Caroline," he interrupted, "I didn't refuse, you only thought I
did."
She held up her hand. "Please let me go on," she begged. "I thought you
refused, and I couldn't understand why. I was hurt and angry. I knew
that father never would have refused me under such circumstances, and
you were his brother. But since then, only to-day, I have learned that I
was wrong. I have learned--"
She paused. The captain was silent. He was beginning to hope, to believe
once more in his judgment of character; and yet, with his hope and
growing joy, there was a trifle of anxiety.
"I have learned," went on his niece, "that I was mistaken. I can't
understand yet why you wished to wait before saying yes, but I do know
that it must have been neither because you were unkind nor ungenerous.
I have just come from those poor people, and they have told me
everything."
Captain Elisha started. "What did they tell you?" he asked, quickly.
"Who told you?"
"Annie and her mother. They told me what you had done and were doing for
them. How kind you had been all through the illness and to-day. Oh, I
know you made them promise not to tell me; and you made the doctor and
nurse promise, too.
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