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Sisters by Ada Cambridge
page 66 of 341 (19%)
"You go and fetch him tomorrow," said she, "and I'll talk to Mrs Kelsey
while you are away. Then I'll meet you at the station on your return,
to help you with him, and tell you what Mrs Kelsey says--though I have
no doubt of what it will be. But we'll keep him at Redford for a bit,
till he gets used to everybody; and you must stay with him all you can
until your ship sails. . . ."

His eyes were full of tears. He laid his hand on her shawl again. He
leaned to her. It was no use--the moon and his feelings were too much
for him. They were talking of the baby, and the word "love" had not
been, and was not going to be, mentioned; but there the thing was,
unmistakable to her keen intelligence, looming like a frontier
custom-house on the road ahead.

She grasped his big, trembling hand, and with it held him back, meeting
his adoring gaze with steady eyes and mouth.

"My dear boy, don't--don't! Don't spoil this nice evening--"

It was all that was necessary. And still so kind, so gentle with him!
No scorn, no offended dignity, no displeasure even. She, who could
punish insolence with anybody, was never hard upon the humble
admirer--only too soft, in fact, with all her basic firmness, and
incapable of the hard-hearted coquetry that so commonly makes beauty
vile. "Face of waxen angel, with paw of desert beast"--that was not
Deborah Pennycuick.

A sob broke from him.

"I am a damned fool!" he muttered savagely, and by a violent effort
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