Chamberlayne,
the lawyer, from Applegate. Yesterday when he was spending the day at
the big house, he came over to see me."
"Had he never seen you before?"
"Of course, when I was little--and later he took me to school in
Applegate. I was to stay there until I was twenty-one you know, but I
ran away the second year because grandfather fell ill with pneumonia and
there was no one to look after him. You remember that, don't you?"
"Yes, I remember. I picked you up on the road and brought you home in my
gig. There was a heavy snow storm."
"It seems that I was meant to be educated as a lady. Old Mr. Jonathan
left a letter about it."
"He did?--damn him! Why didn't he save himself the trouble by acting
decently in the beginning?"
"That was because of Mrs. Gay--he had promised her, when he thought she
was dying, some dreadful thing. And after that he was afraid--afraid of
her all his life. Isn't it terrible that such a saintly person should
have caused so much sin?"
"But what was she to him that he should have been such a coward about
her?"
"Oh, he loved her more than anything on earth--for he loved my mother
only a little while.
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