Something
would happen. What it would be she did not know, but to her it seemed
that the bleak stage was set for untoward drama, and they two the
puppets that must play.
She strove against this impression with cold logic; but reason availed
nothing against the feeling that the North had but to stretch forth its
mighty hand and crush them utterly. But all of this she concealed from
Bill. She was ashamed of her fears, the groundless uneasiness. Yet it
was a constant factor in her daily life, and it sapped her vitality as
surely and steadily as lack of bodily nourishment could have done.
Had there been in her make-up any inherent weakness of mentality, Hazel
might perhaps have brooded herself into neurasthenia. Few save those
who have actually experienced complete isolation for extended periods
can realize the queer, warped outlook such an existence imposes on the
human mind, if that mind is a trifle more than normally sensitive to
impressions, and a nature essentially social both by inclination and
habit. In the first months of their marriage she had assured herself
and him repeatedly that she could be perfectly happy and contented any
place on earth with Bill Wagstaff.
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