"Would it be the heroic-in-little," she begged, "to let
me mend that?"
As he went out alone into the winter streets he too drew
upon a pagan for his admonition. "'What then art thou
doing here, O imagination?'" he groaned in his private
heart. "'Go away, I entreat thee by the gods, for I want
thee not. But thou art come again according to thy old
fashion. I am not angry with thee, only go away!'"
CHAPTER XXV
Miss Milburn pressed her contention that the suspicion
of his desire would be bad for her lover's political
prospects till she made him feel his honest passion almost
a form of treachery to his party. She also hinted that,
for the time being, it did not make particularly for her
own comfort in the family circle, Mr Milburn having grown
by this time quite bitter. She herself drew the excitement
of intrigue from the situation, which she hid behind her
pretty, pale, decorous features, and never betrayed by
the least of her graceful gestures. She told herself that
she had never been so right about anything as about that
affair of the ring--imagine, for an instant, if she had
been wearing it now! She would have banished Lorne
altogether if she could. As he insisted on an occasional
meeting, she clothed it in mystery, appointing it for an
evening when her mother and aunt were out, and answering
his ring at the door herself.
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