Many girls were married,
and given households of their own to manage, when they
were even younger.
This reflection raised an obstacle against the smooth-
flowing current of his thoughts. Supposing that Julia
got the notion of marrying--how miserable that would
make everything. Very likely she would never do any
such thing; he had observed in her no shadow of a sign
that a thought of matrimony had ever crossed her brain.
Yet that was a subject upon which, of course, she could
not be asked to give pledges, even to herself.
Thorpe tried to take a liberal view of this matter.
He argued to himself that there would be no objection at
all to incorporating Julia's husband into the household,
assuming that she went to the length of taking one,
and that he was a good fellow. On this latter point,
it was only the barest justice to Julia's tastes and judgment
to take it for granted that he would be a good fellow.
Yet the uncle felt uneasily that this would alter things
for the worse. The family party, with that hypothetical
young man in it, could never be quite so innocently
and completely happy as--for instance--the family party
in this compartment had been during these wonderful
three months.
Mechanically he rubbed the window beside him, and turned
to look out with a certain fixedness--as if he might
chance to catch a glimpse of the bridegroom with whom
Julia would have it in her power to disturb the serenity
of their prospective home.
Pages:
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194