She took that from Allan Baird, and George took his from
Deborah! They'll get over it soon enough--"
"They won't get over it!" Roger cried. "Their dreams are parts of something
new! Something I'm quite vague about--but some of it has come to stay!
You're losing all your chances--just as I did years ago! You'll never know
your children!"
But he uttered this cry to himself alone. Outwardly he only frowned. And
Edith had gone on to say,
"I do hope that Deborah won't come up this summer. She's been very good and
kind, of course, and if she comes she'll be doing it entirely on my
account. But I don't want her here--I want her to marry, the sooner the
better, and come to her senses--be happy, I mean. And I wish you would tell
her so."
Within a few days after this Deborah wrote to her father that she was
coming the next week. He said nothing to Edith about it at first, he had
William saddled and went for a ride to try to determine what he should do.
But it was a ticklish business. For women were queer and touchy, and once
more he felt the working of those uncanny family ties.
"Deborah," he reflected, "is coming up here because she feels it's selfish
of her to stay away. If she marries at once, as she told me herself, she
thinks Edith will be hurt. Edith won't be hurt--and if Deborah comes,
there'll be trouble every minute she stays. But can I tell her so? Not at
all. I can't say, 'You're not wanted here.
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