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Stockton, Frank Richard, 1834-1902

"The House of Martha"

If you cannot do what you promised, you owe it to me to
explain why you cannot do it. I do not know what has happened to change
your views and her views, and, so far as I am concerned, the whole
world. You can set me right; you can explain everything to me."
The frown disappeared, and her face seemed paler. "It is absolutely
impossible to discuss anything of the sort in this house. I must
insist"--
I did not permit her to finish her sentence. "Very well, then," I
exclaimed, "if you cannot talk to me here, talk to me somewhere else.
When you desire it, you go outside of these walls, and you speak freely
and fully. You have so spoken with me; and because you have done so, it
is absolutely necessary that you do it again. Your own heart, your
conscience, must tell you that after what you have said to me, and after
what I have said to you, it is unjust, to say no more, to leave me in
this state of cruel mystification; not to tell me why you have set aside
your promise to me, or even to tell me, when we talked together of
Sylvia, that we were then at the home of Sylvia's mother."
For the first time she looked at me, straight in my eyes, as a true
woman would naturally look at a man who was speaking strongly to her.


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