"
"Oh, nonsense!" he said. "She might have as many drives as she chose;
but presently you'll find a lot of those parsons back at the house,
and she'll take to her white gowns again, and the playing of the organ
all the day long, and all that sham stuff. I tell you what it is: she
never seems alive, she never seems to take any interest in anything,
unless you're with her. Now, you will see how the novelty of this
luncheon-party in an inn will amuse her; but do you think she would
care for it if she and I were here alone?"
"Perhaps you never tried?" Miss Wenna said gently.
"Perhaps I knew she wouldn't come. However, don't let's have a fight,
Wenna: I mean to be very civil to you to-day--I do, really."
"I am so much obliged to you," she said meekly. "But pray don't give
yourself unnecessary trouble."
"Oh," said he, "I'd always be civil to you if you would treat me
decently. But you say far more rude things than I do--in that soft
way, you know, that looks as if it were all silk and honey. I do think
you've awfully little consideration for human failings. If one goes
wrong in the least thing, even in one's spelling, you say something
that sounds as pleasant as possible, and all the same it transfixes
one just as you stick a pin through a beetle. You are very hard, you
are--mean with those who would like to be friends with you. When it's
mere strangers and cottagers and people of that sort, who don't care
a brass farthing about you, then I believe you're all gentleness
and kindness; but to your real friends the edge of a saw is smooth
compared to you.
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