But this change in me, Lee, isn't in my own imagination.
The people who know me best have complained that what patience I had
has gone; even Ira, I'm certain, notices it. I have no success in what
used to do to get along with; my rattle of talk, my line, is gone."
"Those relations of Mina Raff's, the Groves," he said, shifting the
talk to the subject of his thoughts, "are very engaging. Mrs. Grove
specially. She has splendid qualities almost never found together in
one person. She is, well, I suppose careful is the word, and, at the
same time, not at all dull. I wonder if she is altogether well? Her
paleness would spoil most women's looks and, it seems to me, she
mentioned her heart."
"Good Lord, Lee, what are you rambling on about? I don't care for a
description of the woman like one of those anatomical zodiacs in the
Farmers' Almanac." She turned her horse, without warning, through a
break in the fence; and, putting him at a smart run, jumped a stream
with a high insecure bank beyond, and went with a pounding rush up a
sharp incline. He followed, but more conservatively; and, at the solid
fence she next took, he shouted that she'd have to continue on that
gait alone.
"Don't be so careful," she answered mockingly, trotting back; "take a
chance; feel the wind streaming in your face; you'll reach Fanny
safely."
What, exasperated, he muttered was, "Damn Fanny!" He had jumped a fence
as high and wide as respectability; and he enormously preferred
Savina's sort of courage to this mad galloping over the country.
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