Manchurian Books

.."
Into my memory of these pains and stresses comes the figure of Smithie,
full-charged with emotion, so breathless in the presence of the horrid
villain of the piece that she could make no articulate sounds. She
had long tearful confidences with Marion, I know, sympathetic close
clingings. There were moments when only absolute speechlessness
prevented her giving me a stupendous "talking-to"--I could see it in
her eye. The wrong things she would have said! And I recall, too,
Mrs. Ramboat's slow awakening to something in, the air, the growing
expression of solicitude in her eye, only her well-trained fear of
Marion keeping her from speech.
And at last through all this welter, like a thing fated and altogether
beyond our control, parting came to Marion and me.
I hardened my heart, or I could not have gone. For at the last it came
to Marion that she was parting from me for ever. That overbore all other
things, had turned our last hour to anguish. She forgot for a time
the prospect of moving into a new house, she forgot the outrage on her
proprietorship and pride.


Pages:
317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341