But she never meant what they imagined she meant. Why, that
evidence could hang me! ... Allie told them she saw Larry do it. And
it's common knowledge now--I've heard it here.... What, then, had
Allie to forgive--to forgive with eyes that will haunt me to my
grave?"
Then the truth burst upon him with merciless and stunning force.
"My God! Allie believed what they all believed--what I must have
blindly made seem true! ... That I was Beauty Stanton's lover!"
34
The home to which Allie Lee was brought stood in the outskirts of
Omaha upon a wooded bank above the river.
Allie watched the broad, yellow Missouri swirling by. She liked best
to be alone outdoors in the shade of the trees. In the weeks since
her arrival there she had not recovered from the shock of meeting
Neale only to be parted from him.
But the comfort, the luxury of her home, the relief from constant
dread, such as she had known for years, the quiet at night--these
had been so welcome, so saving, that her burden of sorrow seemed
endurable. Yet in time she came to see that the finding of a father
and a home had only added to her bitterness.
Allison Lee's sister, an elderly woman of strong character, resented
the home-bringing of this strange, lost daughter. Allie had found no
sympathy in her.
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