All deception! His heart at that very time was beating for her alone. And
he would contrive to see her as often as possible this summer--during my
absence!"
It was then that Craddock's wife learned the great value of pride and anger
as a compound antidote to overwhelming grief in certain circumstances.
When Craddock, quite unarmed, rushed to meet her at the seashore upon the
next evening, she was en route for Boston.
In several ensuing years, Craddock's wife's mother took care that every
communication from him, every demand for an explanation, every piteous plea
for enlightenment, for one interview, should be ignored. The mother sent
the girl to relatives in Europe; and after Craddock had spent three years
and all the money that he had saved toward the buying of a house for his
wife and himself, in trying to cross her path that he might have a moment's
hearing, he came back home and went to the dogs.
He would have killed himself had not hope remained--the hope that some
chance turn of events would bring him face to face with her, that he might
know wherefore his punishment. He would have proudly resolved to forget
her, and he would have striven day and night to make a name that some day
would reach her ears whereever she might go, had he not felt that some
terrible mistake had taken her from him; time would eventually rectify
matters.
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