FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169  
170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   >>  
hesitation in her voice that had hurt me was not there when she spoke again. 'I oughtn't to have begun it, ought I?' she murmured. 'I oughtn't to have gone to see you that first time. But I did want to. I guess I've always been a little foolish about you. I don't know what first put it into my head, unless it was Antonia, always telling me I mustn't be up to any of my nonsense with you. I let you alone for a long while, though, didn't I?' She was a sweet creature to those she loved, that Lena Lingard! At last she sent me away with her soft, slow, renunciatory kiss. 'You aren't sorry I came to see you that time?' she whispered. 'It seemed so natural. I used to think I'd like to be your first sweetheart. You were such a funny kid!' She always kissed one as if she were sadly and wisely sending one away forever. We said many good-byes before I left Lincoln, but she never tried to hinder me or hold me back. 'You are going, but you haven't gone yet, have you?' she used to say. My Lincoln chapter closed abruptly. I went home to my grandparents for a few weeks, and afterward visited my relatives in Virginia until I joined Cleric in Boston. I was then nineteen years old. BOOK IV. The Pioneer Woman's Story I TWO YEARS AFTER I left Lincoln, I completed my academic course at Harvard. Before I entered the Law School I went home for the summer vacation. On the night of my arrival, Mrs. Harling and Frances and Sally came over to greet me. Everything seemed just as it used to be. My grandparents looked very little older. Frances Harling was married now, and she and her husband managed the Harling interests in Black Hawk. When we gathered in grandmother's parlour, I could hardly believe that I had been away at all. One subject, however, we avoided all evening. When I was walking home with Frances, after we had left Mrs. Harling at her gate, she said simply, 'You know, of course, about poor Antonia.' Poor Antonia! Everyone would be saying that now, I thought bitterly. I replied that grandmother had written me how Antonia went away to marry Larry Donovan at some place where he was working; that he had deserted her, and that there was now a baby. This was all I knew. 'He never married her,' Frances said. 'I haven't seen her since she came back. She lives at home, on the farm, and almost never comes to town. She brought the baby in to show it to mama once. I'm afraid she's settled down to be Ambro
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169  
170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   >>  



Top keywords:
Harling
 

Antonia

 

Frances

 

Lincoln

 

married

 
grandmother
 
grandparents
 

oughtn

 
academic
 

husband


completed

 

Pioneer

 
interests
 

managed

 
Before
 

School

 
summer
 
arrival
 

vacation

 

looked


Harvard

 

Everything

 

entered

 

working

 

deserted

 

afraid

 

settled

 

brought

 

Donovan

 

avoided


evening

 
walking
 

subject

 

parlour

 

gathered

 
simply
 

replied

 
bitterly
 

written

 
thought

Everyone
 

creature

 
nonsense
 
renunciatory
 

Lingard

 

murmured

 
hesitation
 

telling

 
foolish
 

whispered