Fennel and Rue by William Dean Howells
page 109 of 140 (77%)
page 109 of 140 (77%)
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commotion that followed it."
"Yes, I can imagine that," she answered. But she was yet so faithful that she would not ask him to go on. He continued, unasked, "I don't know just how, now, to account for its coming into my head that it was Miss Andrews who was my unknown correspondent. I suppose I've always unconsciously expected to meet that girl, and Miss Andrews's hypothetical case was psychologically so parallel--" "Yes, yes!" "And I've sometimes been afraid that I judged it too harshly--that it was a mere girlish freak without any sort of serious import." "I was sometimes afraid so, Philip. But--" "And I don't believe now that the hypothetical case brought any intolerable stress of conscience upon Miss Shirley, or that she fainted from any cause but exhaustion from the general ordeal. She was still weak from the sickness she had been through--too weak to bear the strain of the work she had taken up. Of course, the catastrophe gave the whole surface situation away, and I must say that those rather banal young people behaved very humanely about it. There was nothing but interest of the nicest kind, and, if she is going on with her career, it will be easy enough for her to find engagements after this." "Why shouldn't she go on?" his mother asked, with a suspicion which she kept well out of sight. |
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