"He'll do it without telling
us."
Her brother had faced round to her again; he started a little at
this, and again, at one of the candles, lighted his cigarette, which
had gone out. She looked at him a moment; then he said something
that surprised her. "Is Mrs. Churchley very rich?"
"I haven't the least idea. What on earth has that to do with it?"
Godfrey puffed his cigarette. "Does she live as if she were?"
"She has a lot of hideous showy things."
"Well, we must keep our eyes open," he concluded. "And now you must
let me get on." He kissed his visitor as if to make up for
dismissing her, or for his failure to take fire; and she held him a
moment, burying her head on his shoulder.
A wave of emotion surged through her, and again she quavered out:
"Ah why did she leave us? Why did she leave us?"
"Yes, why indeed?" the young man sighed, disengaging himself with a
movement of oppression.
CHAPTER II
Adela was so far right as that by the end of the week, though she
remained certain, her father had still not made the announcement she
dreaded. What convinced her was the sense of her changed relations
with him--of there being between them something unexpressed,
something she was aware of as she would have been of an open wound.
When she spoke of this to Godfrey he said the change was of her own
making--also that she was cruelly unjust to the governor. She
suffered even more from her brother's unexpected perversity; she had
had so different a theory about him that her disappointment was
almost an humiliation and she needed all her fortitude to pitch her
faith lower.
Pages:
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30