And he is mine! I am certainly inconstant
to Charles, for I think of Leboo fifty times more. Besides, there is no
engagement as yet between Charles and me. I have first to be approved
worthy by Mr. and Miss Pollingray: two pairs of eyes and ears, over which
I see a solemnly downy owl sitting, conning their reports of me. It is a
very unkind ordeal to subject any inexperienced young woman to. It was
harshly conceived and it is being remorselessly executed. I would
complain more loudly--in shrieks--if I could say I was unhappy; but every
night I look out of my window before going to bed and see the long falls
of the infant river through the meadow, and the dark woods seeming to
enclose the house from harm: I dream of the old inhabitant, his
ancestors, and the numbers and numbers of springs when the wildflowers
have flourished in those woods and the nightingales have sung there. And
I feel there will never be a home to me like Dayton.
CHAPTER V
HE
For twenty years of my life I have embraced the phantom of the fairest
woman that ever drew breath.
Pages:
603
604
605
606
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627