"If you SHOULD wish still to wait,
I would engage she shouldn't see me."
"No, no: it's the place itself. She must leave it."
She held me a moment with heavy eyes, then brought out the rest.
"Your idea's the right one. I myself, miss--"
"Well?"
"I can't stay."
The look she gave me with it made me jump at possibilities.
"You mean that, since yesterday, you HAVE seen--?"
She shook her head with dignity. "I've HEARD--!"
"Heard?"
"From that child--horrors! There!" she sighed with tragic relief.
"On my honor, miss, she says things--!" But at this evocation she broke down;
she dropped, with a sudden sob, upon my sofa and, as I had seen her do before,
gave way to all the grief of it.
It was quite in another manner that I, for my part, let myself go.
"Oh, thank God!"
She sprang up again at this, drying her eyes with a groan. "'Thank God'?"
"It so justifies me!"
"It does that, miss!"
I couldn't have desired more emphasis, but I just hesitated.
"She's so horrible?"
I saw my colleague scarce knew how to put it. "Really shocking."
"And about me?"
"About you, miss--since you must have it. It's beyond everything,
for a young lady; and I can't think wherever she must have picked up--"
"The appalling language she applied to me? I can, then!"
I broke in with a laugh that was doubtless significant enough.
It only, in truth, left my friend still more grave.
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