She still pressed for an acknowledgment
of their marriage, while his refusal was still based on a very real
solicitude for his mother. Only in the last six months had his feeling
for Molly entered into the situation; but like all swift and unguarded
emotions, it absorbed the colour in his thoughts, while it left both the
past and the future in the cover of darkness.
"I wish you wouldn't wander off alone like this, Molly," he began as he
joined her.
"Oh, it's perfectly safe, Jonathan--everybody knows me for miles
around."
"But it would make mother nervous if she were to hear of it. She has
never allowed Aunt Kesiah to go off the lawn by herself."
"Poor Aunt Kesiah," said Molly softly.
He glanced at her sharply. "Why do you say that?" he asked, "she has
always seemed to me to have everything she wanted. If she hadn't had
mother to occupy her time, what under heaven would have become of her?"
"I wonder?" she returned; "but has it ever occurred to you that Aunt
Kesiah and I are not exactly alike, Jonathan?"
"Well, rather. What are you driving at?"
Her answering smile, instead of softening the effect of her words,
appeared to call attention to the width of the gulf that separated
Kesiah's generation from her own.
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