So he consoled himself with Maud,
who, now being in her teens, assumed dignified airs, and ordered
him about in a style that afforded him continued amusement and
employment.
Western news continued vague, for Fan's general inquiries
produced only provokingly unsatisfactory replies from Tom, who
sang the praises of "the beautiful Miss Bailey," and professed to be
consumed by a hopeless passion for somebody, in such half-comic,
half-tragic terms, that the girls could not decide whether it was "all
that boy's mischief," or only a cloak to hide the dreadful truth.
"We 'll have it out of him when he comes home in the spring," said
Fanny to Polly, as they compared the letters of their brothers, and
agreed that "men were the most uncommunicative and provoking
animals under the sun." For Ned was so absorbed in business that
he ignored the whole Bailey question and left them in utter
darkness.
Hunger of any sort is a hard thing to bear, especially when the
sufferer has a youthful appetite, and Polly was kept on such a short
allowance of happiness for six months, that she got quite thin and
interesting; and often, when she saw how big her eyes were
getting, and how plainly the veins on her temples showed,
indulged the pensive thought that perhaps spring dandelions might
blossom o'er her grave.
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