I have been an idiot! What I've borne
you'll never know! To-night is only one of many outbursts like that, in
varying and lesser degrees."
"Phil, I love you, when you say you have thought only of Edith! I happen
to know that it is true. You are my only son, and I have had a right to
watch you closely. I believe you utterly. Any one who cares for you as
I do, and has had my years of experience in this world over yours, knows
that in some ways, to-night would be a blessed release, if you could
take it; but you cannot! Go to bed now, and rest. To-morrow, go back to
her and fix it up."
"You heard what I said when I left her! I said it because something in
my heart died a minute before that, and I realized that it was my love
for Edith Carr. Never again will I voluntarily face such a scene. If she
can act like that at a ball, before hundreds, over a thing of which
I thought nothing at all, she would go into actual physical fits and
spasms, over some of the household crises I've seen the mater meet with
a smile. Sir, it is truth that I have thought only of her up to the
present. Now, I will admit I am thinking about myself. Father, did you
see her? Life is too short, and it can be too sweet, to throw it away
in a battle with an unrestrained woman. I am no fighter--where a girl is
concerned, anyway. I respect and love her or I do nothing. Never again
is either respect or love possible between me and Edith Carr.
Pages:
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357