You do not like that?"
Like it! A cold and tingling pain ran through my body, and there sprang
up in me an emotion of the intensest hatred for a person whom I had
never seen.
My feelings were such as I could not express; the situation was one
which I could not discuss. I took leave of Miss Laniston without giving
sufficient consideration to her expression of countenance and to her
final words now to be able to say whether they indicated amusement or
sympathy.
XLII.
THE MOTHER SUPERIOR.
Seldom, I think, has a berth in a sleeping-car held a more
turbulent-minded man than I was during my journey from New York to
Washington. The revelation that the same man had loved and been loved by
Mother Anastasia and by Sylvia had disquieted me in a manner not easy to
explain; but I knew that I was being torn by jealousy, and jealousy is a
passion which it is sometimes impossible to explain.
An idea which came into my mind in the night increased the storm within
me. I imagined that the wretch who had made suit to both Marcia and
Sylvia was Walkirk. He knew a good deal about these women; sometimes I
was surprised to discover how much he knew. Perhaps now, acting in a
base disguise, he was endeavoring to make of me a stepping-stone to his
ultimate success with one or the other.
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