The message was a long one, and its cost, as well
as that of the one by which I informed the stenographer that he might
come home, and the price of the man's passage to Liverpool and back,
besides the sum I was obliged to pay him for his lost time, might all
have been saved to me, had the fellow been thoughtful enough to make
himself sure that we were on board before he allowed himself to be
carried off. But little rubs of this kind were of slight moment to me at
that time.
On the day after things had been taken for granted between Sylvia and
myself, I saw her at her mother's house, and I must admit that although
it had given me such exquisite pleasure to feel that she was mine in the
coarse gray gown of a "sister," it delighted me more to feel she was
mine in the ordinary costume of society. She was as gay as a butterfly
ought to be which had just cast off its gray wrappings and spread its
wings to the coloring light.
I found Mrs. Raynor in a somewhat perturbed state of mind.
"I cannot accommodate myself," she said, "to these sudden and violent
mutations. I like to sit on the sands and stay there as long as I
please, and to feel that I know how high each breaker will be, and how
far the tide will come in, but these tidal waves which make beach of sea
and sea of beach sweep me away utterly; I cannot comprehend where I am.
Pages:
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369