I made him listen for half an hour, and at the
end of the time he was interested. He had all the appearance of it; he
sat gazing at me, and at last the tears came into his eyes. I believe I
had a moment of eloquence. I don't know what I said, nor how I said it,
to what point it would bear examination, nor how, if you had been there,
it would seem to you, as a disinterested critic, to hang together; but
I know that after a while there were tears in my own eyes. I begged him
not to give up Blanche; I assured him that she is not so foolish as she
seems; that she is a very delicate little creature to handle, and that,
in reality, whatever she does, she is thinking only of him. He had been
all goodness and kindness to her, I knew that; but he had not, from the
first, been able to conceal from her that he regarded her chiefly as a
pretty kitten. She wished to be more than that, and she took refuge in
flirting, simply to excite his jealousy and make him feel strongly
about her. He has felt strongly, and he was feeling strongly now; he was
feeling passionately--that was my whole contention. But he had perhaps
never made it plain to those rather near-sighted little mental eyes of
hers, and he had let her suppose something that could n't fail to rankle
in her mind and torment it.
Pages:
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330