I can't rule myself
at all. It needs a strength I haven't got!"
"Ah!" said Celia, thoughtfully. The excited sentences
which Edith threw over her shoulder as she walked appeared,
upon examination, to contain a suggestion.
"My dear child, "she asked abruptly, after a moment's silence,
"do you want to marry?"
Lady Cressage paused at the mantel, and exchanged
a long steadfast glance with her friend. Then she
came slowly forward. "Ah, that is what I don't know,"
she answered. Apparently the reply was candid.
Miss Madden pursed her lips, and frowned a little
in thought. Then, at some passing reflection,
she smiled in a puzzled fashion. At last she also rose,
and went to the mantel for another cigarette. "Now I
am going to talk plainly," she said, with decision.
"Since the subject is mentioned, less harm will be done
by speaking out than by keeping still. There is a debate
in your mind on the matter, isn't there?"
The other lady, tall, slender, gently ruminative once more,
stood at the window and with bowed head looked down at
the lake. "Yes--I suppose it might be called that,"
she replied, in a low voice.
"And you hesitate to tell me about it? You would
rather not?" Celia, after an instant's pause, went on
without waiting for an answer. "I beg that you won't
assume my hostility to the idea, Edith.
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