"I ain't," she declared. "And, anyhow, ma'am,
gettin' married don't necessarily mean you're in love."
"It don't! Well, this beats all I ever--"
"No, ma'am, it don't. Sometimes it's a person's duty to get married."
Thankful gasped. "Duty!" she repeated. "You HAVE been readin' more of
those books, in spite of your promisin' me you wouldn't."
"No, ma'am, I ain't. Honest, I ain't."
"Then what do you mean? Imogene, what man do you care enough for to make
you feel it's your--your duty to marry him?"
"No man at all," declared Imogene, promptly and decisively. And that is
all she would say on the subject.
Thankful repeated this astonishing conversation, or part of it, to
Emily. The latter considered it a good joke. "That girl is a strange
creature," she said, "and great fun. You never can tell what she will
say or think. She is very romantic and that nonsense about duty and
the rest of it undoubtedly is taken from some story she has read. You
needn't worry, Auntie. Imogene worships you, and she will never leave
you--to be married, or for any other reason."
So Thankful did not worry about Imogene. She had other worries, those
connected with a houseful of boarders, and these were quite sufficient.
And now came another. Kenelm Parker was threatening to leave her employ.
The statement is not strictly true. Kenelm, himself, never threatened
to do anything. But another person did the threatening for him and that
person was his sister. Hannah Parker, for some unaccountable reason,
seemed to be developing a marked prejudice against the High Cliff House.
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