So she and her mother went out to the Merediths'.
The change proved beneficial. I have not been driving myself,
although the summer has been so long and hot; and during the
afternoons I have so longed to see the cool green lanes with the
sun setting over the fields. But of course people drive a great
deal and they often meet Mrs. Meredith with Marguerite in the
carriage beside her. At first it was Marguerite's mother and
Marguerite. Then it was Mrs. Meredith and Marguerite; and now it
is Rowan and Marguerite. They drive alone and she sits with her
face turned toward him--in open idolatry. She is to stay out there
until she is quite well. How curiously things work around! If he
ever proposes, scandal will make no difference to Marguerite.
"How my letter wanders! But so do my thoughts wander. If you only
knew, while I write these things, how I am really thinking of other
things. But I must go on in my round-about way. What I started
out to say was that when the scandals, I mean the truth, spread
over the town about Rowan, the three Marguerites stood by him. You
could never have believed that the child had such fire and strength
and devotion in her nature. I called on them one day and was
coldly treated simply because I am your closest friend. Marguerite
pointedly expressed her opinion of a woman who deserts a man
because he has his faults. Think of this child's sitting in moral
condemnation upon you!
"The Hardages also--of course you have no stancher friends than
they are--have stood up stubbornly for Rowan.
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