...
The reaction was a more intense feeling of loyalty to Mortimer than ever.
She was entirely to blame. He not only had been innocent of conscious
rivalry, even of pursuit--for she could quite easily have discouraged him
in the earlier stages of his courtship--but he was dependent upon her in
every way: for his happiness, for the secure social position that meant so
much to him, for the greater number of his valuable connections, for even
his comfort and ease of living.
Something of this had passed through her stunned mind on the morning of her
mother's death. Now it was all as sharply outlined as the etching at which
she was raptly gazing, and she vowed anew that she would never desert him,
never deny him the assistance of the true partner. She had signed a life
contract with her eyes open and she would keep it to the letter.
Only she hoped to heaven that Gathbroke was not serious about Gora. She
wished never to be reminded of his existence again.
And, as Aileen talked of Santa Barbara, she wondered vaguely why there
was not a law forbidding girls to marry until they were well into their
twenties....until they had had a certain amount of experience....knew their
own minds....Maria had been right....
CHAPTER VI
I
The darkness had come early with the high rolling fog that shut out the
stars. The fog horn and the bells were silent but the wind had a thin
anxious note as if lost, and the long creaking eucalyptus trees angrily
repelled it as if irritated beyond endurance by its eternal visitations.
Pages:
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176