Jonathan Gay--had ever
gone back on a woman. With girls it was different, since they, being
sentimentally above the proneness to error as well as practically below
the liability for maintenance, might play fast and loose wherever
their fleeting fancy alighted. But in the case of his unhappy sex an
honourable inclination once yielded to, was established forever. His
sacrifice was sanctioned by custom. There was no escape since it was
tradition that held him by the throat.
His business in Applegate, which included a careful matching of Judy's
braid, took up the entire morning; and it was dinner time before he
turned back to the little inn, known as Raleigh's Tavern, at which the
farmers usually stopped for meals. Here, after washing his hands in a
basin on the back porch, he hastily smoothed his hair, and passed into
the small paved court in front of the tavern. As he approached the
doorway, the figure of a young woman in a black dress, which he felt
instinctively did not "belong" to Applegate, came down the short steps,
and paused an instant to caress a large dog that was lying in the
sunshine near the entrance.
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