"Why should we
shun one another, as if we were both of us incapable of decency or self-
control? Why must love be always assumed to make us weak and
contemptible, as if it were some subtle poison? Why shouldn't it
strengthen and ennoble us?"
"Why did the apple fall?" answered Flossie. "Why, when it escapes from
its bonds, doesn't it soar upward? If it wasn't for the irritating law
of gravity, we could skip about on the brink of precipices without
danger. Things being what they are, sensible people keep as far away
from the edge as possible."
"I'm sorry," she continued; "awfully sorry, old girl. It's a bit of
rotten bad luck for both of you. You were just made for one another. And
Fate, knowing what was coming, bustles round and gets hold of poor, silly
Mrs. Phillips so as to be able to say 'Yah.'"
"Unless it all comes right in the end," she added musingly; "and the poor
old soul pegs out. I wouldn't give much for her liver."
"That's not bringing me up well," suggested Joan: "putting those ideas
into my head."
"Oh, well, one can't help one's thoughts," explained Flossie.
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