"Cold toward Allan, calm and cool,
nothing but mind and reason! You say it means little to me, all that! But
if I had had trouble with Allan, would I have come running home to talk?
Wouldn't I have hugged it tight? And isn't that love? What do _you_ know of
me and the life I've led? Do you know how it feels to want to work, to be
something yourself, without any man? And can't _that_ be a passion? Have
you had to live with Edith here and see what motherhood can be, what it can
do to a woman? And now you come with _another_ side, just as narrow as
hers, devouring everything else in sight! And because I'm a little afraid
of that, for myself and all I want to do, you say I don't know what love
is! But I do! And my love's worth more than yours! It's deeper, richer, it
will last!... Then why do I loathe it _all_ to-night?... But I don't, I
only loathe _your_ side!... But yours is the very heart of it!... All
right, then what am I going to do?"
She was going slowly down the stairs. She stopped for a moment, frowning.
CHAPTER XXXII
On the floor below she met her father, who was coming out of his room. He
looked at her keenly:
"What's the trouble?"
"Laura's here," she answered. "Trouble again with her husband. Better leave
her alone for the present--she's going to stay in my room for a while."
"Very well," her father grunted, and they went down to dinner. There
Deborah was silent, and Edith did most of the talking.
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