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The Three Black Pennys - A Novel by Joseph Hergesheimer
page 66 of 314 (21%)
moved; but suddenly the words had a new actuality; he was a man now,
that was to say he stood finally, irrevocably, alone, beyond assistance,
advice. He had never heeded them; he had gone a high-handed, independent
way, but the others had been there; unconsciously he had been aware of
them, even counted on them. Now they had vanished.

Caroline and Myrtle, bringing David with them again, returned on the
following morning. It seemed to Howat that the former was almost lovely;
she had a gayer sparkle, a clearer colour, than he had ever seen her
possess before. On the other hand, Myrtle was dull; the dress, it
seemed, had not been the unqualified success she had hoped for.
Something newer had arrived in the meantime from London. Ludowika, it
developed, had one of the later sacques in her boxes; but that, she said
indifferently, must be quite dead now. It seemed to Howat that she too
regarded Myrtle without enthusiasm. Ludowika and Myrtle had had very
little to say to each other; Myrtle studied Mrs. Winscombe's apparel
with a keen, even belligerent, eye; the other patronized the girl in a
species of half absent instruction.

The sky was flawless, leaden blue; the sunlight fell in an enveloping
flood over the countryside, but it was pale, without warmth. There was
no wind, not a leaf turned on the trees--a sinuous sheeting of the
country-side like red-gold armour. But Howat knew that at the first stir
of air the leaves would be in stricken flight, the autumn accomplished.
Caroline dragged him impetuously down into the garden, among the brown,
varnished stems of the withered roses, the sere, dead ranks of scarlet
sage. "He hugged me," she told him; "I was quite breathless. It was in a
hall, dark; but he didn't say anything. What do you think?" There was
nothing definite that he might express; and he patted her shoulder. He
had a new kinship with Caroline; Howat now understood her tempest of
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