She lost no time
however in brooding over this anomaly: it only added energy to her
determination to act. All she could do to-night was to go to bed,
for she felt utterly weary. She had been living, in imagination, in
a prospective struggle, and it had left her as exhausted as a real
fight. Moreover this was the culmination of a crisis, of weeks of
suspense, of a long, hard strain. Her father had been laid in his
grave five days before, and that morning his will had been read. In
the afternoon she had got Edith off to St. Leonard's with their aunt
Julia, and then she had had a wretched talk with Eric. Lastly, she
had made up her mind to act in opposition to the formidable will, to
a clause which embodied if not exactly a provision, a recommendation
singularly emphatic. She went to bed and slept the sleep of the
just.
"Oh, my dear, how charming! I must take another house!" It was in
these words that her mother responded to the announcement Rose had
just formally made and with which she had vaguely expected to produce
a certain dignity of effect. In the way of emotion there was
apparently no effect at all, and the girl was wise enough to know
that this was not simply on account of the general line of non-
allusion taken by the extremely pretty woman before her, who looked
like her elder sister.
Pages:
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26