arly trembled
trying to choke it down."

"But did she mind? I mean, his impatience?"

"I can't say she did; but--"

"There you have it. They are marvelously suited. Listen and let me talk
to you for your comfort. This, do you hear, is exactly the most
delightful thing that could have happened. Haven't you noticed that
complex natures are rather given to uniting with simple ones, and
finding happiness with them? An artist--how often!--marries his model, a
philosopher marries a peasant."

"Go on!" sighed Estelle. "Go on! I love you for making me feel better!"
Her eyes moistened again in an almost luxurious melancholy.

"One of the reasons for mother and me wishing for this consummation was
the broadening of life it would afford Gerald. Gerald doesn't think
about money. Aurora's money, all the same, will do a lot for him in
making possible his getting away from here, where the truth is he
stagnates. Then, too, she will cure him of his morbidness. He sees red
if one so much as breathes the suggestion that his art is morbid. But of
course it is."

"Aurora said they might go to live in Paris, because she thought it
would be good for his art."

"Now that's what I want to hear about. Go on and tell me what Aurora
said and what happened between midnight and their extraordinary
elopement, as you call it. But, first of all, why, in the name of common
sense, did they elope? From what did they elope?"

"From me, I guess. I don't see what else. Oh, yes, I do. From the talk
there would be. But principally, I suspect, he hurried her into it to
make sure of her, for she, too, had her moments of doubting the wisdom
of what she was doing. That much I know. They had only been engaged two
weeks, and all that time I didn't even know they were engaged. I hadn't
been nice about Gerald, I feel bound to confess, so she thought best not
to tell me. She didn't want to hear how I would take it, we've been so
used to speaking our minds to each other. He came oftener than ever and
stayed longer, till it got so I made a point of getting up and making an
excuse to leave the room. It was my way of being spiteful. But Nell
didn't take it up with me in private, as I expected she would. They were
tickled to death to have me leave the room, I can see now. She went
around the house singing an Easter carol and fixing flowers in the
vases, with a look of cheerfulness apart from me that made her seem like
a stranger. I was pretty sore, I can tell you,