FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91  
92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   >>   >|  
n the lock, and pushed the door open. "I suppose you have to say that," he exclaimed, "but of course there's no honour about it to you. If your father was a clergyman, you probably look down on me. My father was in the grocery business. He got me into the bank because he had an account there." He stood by to let her pass him into the hall. "You're really quite wrong," she began, then she saw that he was not following her. "I thought you were coming in," she said. "No; I'm not coming in yet. Good night." He closed the door behind him, and left her abruptly in the darkness of the hall. She stood there for a moment, listening to the departure of his footsteps as he slouched aimlessly away. He was nobody--nobody in her life--but she felt sorry for him. On the verge of love--in love itself--is a boundless capacity for sympathy. She turned to go upstairs, still feeling pity for him in the pain she had unavoidably caused him. She did not realize that this was simply a reflection, the first shadowing of her love for Traill, that sought any outlet in which to find expression. In the bedroom, Janet was making a strange costume for a student's fancy dress ball. She did not look up when Sally entered. With her inexperienced needle, the work occupied her whole attention. Sally stood and watched her laborious efforts with a smile of gentle amusement. "Let me do it for you," she said at last--"those stitches 'll never hold." In her mood she was willing--anxious to do anything for any one. She felt no fatigue from her day's work. In the everlasting routine, it is the mind that makes the body tired. Her mind was lifted above the ordinary susceptibility to exhaustion. Janet stuck her needle into the material on her knee, and looked up searchingly. "What's the matter with you to-night?" she asked. "Nothing's the matter. Why?" "You're so officiously agreeable." Sally laughed. "You wanted to help Mrs. Hewson to make that mincemeat," Janet continued; "now you want to help me; and you were the soul of good-nature to Mr. Arthur. I'm sure he thinks you're going to accept him." "No, he doesn't." "How do you know?" "I told him after supper. He asked me to come out with him. I told him I couldn't marry him." Janet looked at her with curiosity, her eyes narrowed, judging the tone of the words rather than the words themselves, as if they were subject for her brush. "How did he take it?" she asked, g
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91  
92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
coming
 

needle

 

matter

 
looked
 

father

 

fatigue

 

anxious

 

everlasting

 

routine

 

lifted


ordinary

 
gentle
 

amusement

 
laborious
 
efforts
 

subject

 

stitches

 

susceptibility

 

exhaustion

 

mincemeat


continued

 

Hewson

 

couldn

 

watched

 

Arthur

 
nature
 

supper

 

wanted

 

judging

 

searchingly


narrowed

 

accept

 
material
 

officiously

 

agreeable

 

laughed

 

thinks

 

curiosity

 

Nothing

 

Traill


thought
 
moment
 

listening

 

departure

 

darkness

 
abruptly
 

closed

 
account
 
exclaimed
 

honour