"
"He is anxious about your health and doesn't like to go so far away from
you," replied Molly, sitting on an ottoman beside her chair.
Taking her hand, Mrs. Gay caressed it while she answered.
"I can never think of myself when Jonathan's happiness is to be
considered." Then dropping her voice still lower, she added tenderly,
"You are a great comfort to me, dear, a very great comfort."
What she meant, and Molly grasped her meaning as distinctly as if she
had put it into words, was that she was comforted, she was reassured by
the girl's obvious indifference to Jonathan's passion. Like many
persons of sentimental turn of mind, she found no great difficulty in
reconciling a visionary romanticism with a very practical regard for the
more substantial values of life.
"I should never allow the question of my health to interfere with
Jonathan's plans," she repeated, while her expression grew angelic in
the light of her sacrificial fervour.
"I don't think he wants to go," retorted Kesiah rather snappily, and
opening the book again she began to read.
For an hour her voice droned steadily in the firelight, while Molly,
with her head against Mrs.
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