"
She sprang up, and her dark eyes flashed indignantly. "I am beginning
to think that you are changed more than I," she said, impetuously.
"You know, or might, if you took the trouble, that I did not tell
Mary, my own sister, of my progress toward health and strength. My
wish to give you all a pleasant surprise may seem a little thing to
you, or you may give some sinister, unnatural meaning to the act. It
was not a little thing to go away 'a ghost, a wraith,' as you were
wont to call me--it was not a little thing to go away alone, perhaps
to die, as I then felt. Nor was it a little thing to battle for weary
months with weakness of mind and body, morbid timidity, indolence,
ignorance, and everything that was contrary to my ideal of womanhood.
I can say thus much in self-defence. Was there harm in my adding some
incentive to a hard sense of duty? I felt that if I could change for
the better and keep my secret I could give you all a glad surprise. I
had almost a child's pleasure in the thought. Mary and Henry rewarded
me, but you are spoiling it all. You at once make an impossible
demand, and discover, within twenty-four hours, how awkward my
compliance would have been. I did not know you so long without gaining
the power of guessing your thoughts.
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