Pauline's Passion and Punishment by Louisa May Alcott
page 31 of 59 (52%)
page 31 of 59 (52%)
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until I married you, then letting me so soon discover that I was only an
encumbrance to your enjoyment of the fortune I possessed. You treat me like a child, but I suffer like a woman, and you shall share my suffering, because you might have spared me, and you did not. Gilbert, you shall stay." "Be it so, but remember I have warned you." An exultant expression broke through the gloom of her husband's face as he answered with the grim satisfaction of one who gave restraint to the mind, and stood ready to follow whatever impulse should sway him next. His wife trembled inwardly at what she had done, but was too proud to recall her words and felt a certain bitter pleasure in the excitement of the new position she had taken, the new interest given to her listless life. Pauline and Manuel found them standing silently together, for a moment had done the work of years and raised a barrier between them never to be swept away. Mrs. Redmond spoke first, and with an air half resentful, half triumphant: "Pauline, this morose husband of mine says we must leave tomorrow. But in some things I rule; this is one of them. Therefore we remain and go with you to the mountains when we are tired of the gay life here. So smile and submit, Gilbert, else these friends will count your society no favor. Would you not fancy, from the aspect he thinks proper to assume, that I had sentenced him to a punishment, not a pleasure?" |
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