He left me very badly off. I had to go
and live with some old aunts in Yorkshire." She shuddered. "You
will understand me when I say that it was a deadly life for a
girl brought up as I had been. The narrowness, the deadly
monotony of it, almost drove me mad." She paused a minute, and
added in a different tone: "And then I met John Cavendish."
"Yes?"
"You can imagine that, from my aunts' point of view, it was a
very good match for me. But I can honestly say it was not this
fact which weighed with me. No, he was simply a way of escape
from the insufferable monotony of my life."
I said nothing, and after a moment, she went on:
"Don't misunderstand me. I was quite honest with him. I told
him, what was true, that I liked him very much, that I hoped to
come to like him more, but that I was not in any way what the
world calls 'in love' with him. He declared that that satisfied
him, and so--we were married."
She waited a long time, a little frown had gathered on her
forehead. She seemed to be looking back earnestly into those
past days.
Pages:
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237