FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123  
124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   >>   >|  
e been working yourself to death?" "I haven't. Why, do I look dead?" "No. Eliot told me. He saw you at it." "I only take a hand at hay time and harvest. All the rest of the year it's just riding about and seeing that other people work. And Colin does half of that now." "All the same, I think it's about time you stopped." "But if I stop the whole thing'll stop. The men must have somebody over them." "There's me." "You don't know anything about farming, Jerry dear. You don't know a teg from a wether." "I suppose I can learn if Colin's learnt. Or I can get another Barker." "Not so easy. Don't you like my looking after your land, then? Aren't you pleased with me? I haven't done so badly, you know. Seven hundred acres." "You've been simply splendid. I shall never forget what you've done. And I shall never forgive myself for letting you do it. I'd no idea what it meant." "It's only meant that Colin's better and I've been happier than I ever thought I could have been." "Happier? Weren't you happy then?" She didn't answer. They were on dangerous ground. If they began talking about happiness-- "If I gave it up to-morrow," she said, "I should only go and work on another farm." "Would you?" "Jerrold--do you want me to go?" "Want you?" "Yes. You did once. At least, you wanted to get away from _me_." "I didn't know what I was doing. If I had known I shouldn't have done it. I can't talk about that, Anne. It doesn't bear thinking about." "No. But, Jerrold--tell me the truth. Do you want me to go because of Colin?" "Colin?" "Yes. Because of what your mother told you?" "How do you know what she told me?" "She told Eliot." "And he told _you_? Good God! what was he thinking of?" "He thought it better for me to know it. It _was_ better." "How could it be?" "I can't tell you...Jerrold, it isn't true." "I know it isn't." "But you thought it was." "When did I think?" "Then; when you came to see me." "Did I?" "Yes. And you're not going to lie about it now." "Well, if I did I've paid for it." (What did he mean? Paid for it? It was she who had paid.) "When did you know it wasn't true?" she said. "Three months after, when Eliot wrote and told me. It was too late then.... If only you'd told me at the time. Why didn't you?" "But I didn't know you thought it. How could I know?" "No. How could you? Who would have believed that things could have happened
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123  
124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

thought

 

Jerrold

 

thinking

 

happiness

 

talking

 

morrow

 

wanted


working

 
months
 

believed

 

things

 

happened

 
Because
 
mother

shouldn

 

happier

 

farming

 

suppose

 

learnt

 

wether

 
riding

harvest

 

stopped

 
people
 

Barker

 

letting

 

forgive

 

Happier


dangerous

 

ground

 

answer

 

forget

 

splendid

 
pleased
 

simply


hundred