And
Diana had listened like a sister, all sympathy and kind looks, promising
in the young man's ear, as he said good-bye at the garden gate, that she
would come again next day to cheer his mother up.
He stood looking after her as she walked away; his hands in his pockets,
a flush on his handsome face. How her coming had glorified and
transformed the place! No womanish nonsense, too, about this going of
his!--though she knew well that it meant fighting. Only a kindling of
the eyes--a few questions as practical as they were eager--and then that
fluttering of the soft breath which he had noticed as she bent over
his mother.
But she was not for him! Thus it is that women--the noblest and the
dearest--throw themselves away. She, with all the right and proper
feelings of an Englishwoman, to mate with this plausible Radical and
Little Englander! Hugh kicked the stones of the gravel savagely to right
and left as he walked back to the house--in a black temper with his
poverty and Diana's foolishness.
But was she really in love? "Why then so pale, fond lover?" He found a
kind of angry comfort in the remembrance of her drooping looks.
Pages:
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206