ns of getting out of the dilemma
created by the Waldos. But he never attempted to begin a conversation
with her, and she put off the evil moment from day to day, telling
herself that there was time yet, and he had probably solved the
problem--he, who was a specialist in solving problems.
Loving the man no longer, her heart seeming to die anew whenever she even
thought of him, there remained still a ghost of her old trust; an almost
resentful confidence that he who was so clever, so hideously clever,
would be capable of overcoming any difficulty.
"I told him that I'd go with him on the ship, and that then we must
part," she assured herself, lying awake at night, wondering feverishly
what was to happen in New York. "He said we'd see about all that later,
but he must know by the way I act that I haven't changed my mind. He will
have to get me out of the trouble about the train."
The girl, in mapping the future, had thought of herself as being a
governess for American children. She did not know many things which
governesses ought to know, but if the children were small enough, she
did not see why she mightn't do very well.
She could sing and play as nine girls out of ten could. She had been told
that she had quite a Parisian accent in French; and as for arithmetic and
geography and other alarming things which children ought to know and
grown-up people forget, one could teach them with the proper books.
Besides, she had heard that Americans liked to have English governesses
for their children; it was considered "smart."
She would go to an agent, and it ought to be easy to find a place in the
country or suburbs. It must not be New York, for fear of some chance
meeting with the Waldos. But if worst came to worst, and because of those
everlasting Waldos she had to get into the train with Knight, she would
get out again at the first good-sized place where it stopped. There must
be agencies for governesses and companions in every large town. One would
serve as well as another.
As for money, she knew that she must have some to go on with until she
could begin to earn. So far she had been forced to let Knight pay her
way, as he said, out of the "good" fund. Her coming with him had been for
his sake, and to spare him from gossip. For herself, she was in no mood
to care what people said.
But now, in sailing to America as his wife, she had done all that she had
ever promised to do. He would have to arrange things as be
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