You would think it wouldn't
happen again."
"No, I wouldn't be 'thinking,'" said, Philip. "I'd be everlastingly
sure! I wouldn't risk what I went through that night again, not to save
my life! Just you and me, Elnora. Decide for us."
"I can't!" cried Elnora. "I am afraid!"
"Very well," said Philip. "We will wait until you feel that you can.
Wait until fear vanishes. Just decide now whether you would rather have
me go for a few months, or remain with you. Which shall it be, Elnora?"
"You can never love me as you did her," wailed Elnora.
"I am happy to say I cannot," replied he. "I've cut my matrimonial
teeth. I'm cured of wanting to swell in society. I'm over being proud of
a woman for her looks alone. I have no further use for lavishing myself
on a beautiful, elegantly dressed creature, who thinks only of self.
I have learned that I am a common man. I admire beauty and beautiful
clothing quite as much as I ever did; but, first, I want an
understanding, deep as the lowest recess of my soul, with the woman I
marry. I want to work for you, to plan for you, to build you a home with
every comfort, to give you all good things I can, to shield you from
every evil. I want to interpose my body between yours and fire, flood,
or famine. I want to give you everything; but I hate the idea of getting
nothing at all on which I can depend in return. Edith Carr had only
good looks to offer, and when anger overtook her, beauty went out like a
snuffed candle.
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