I could tell him everything. He would know just how weary
and depressed I am, nor would he want me to do what I can't, what
I'm not ready for. Oh, what a blessed thing it would be to have a
friend near who wasn't always exacting or expecting or passionately
urging something or other. I wouldn't need urging in his case, and
would even know his hand would be the first to restrain me for my
own good. Where is he now? Oh, he'd be here if my thoughts could
bring him, yet my two lovers would be eager to take his life. Lovers
indeed! Well, it's a strange, tangled up world that I'm learning
about."
Meantime Zany, bursting with her secret, was unable to tell any one,
and not yet sure she wished to tell. For one at her point of
civilization her motives were a little complex and sophisticated. In
a vicarious way she felt not a little the elation of many a high-
born dame that two men were about to fight over her young mistress,
regarding it as an undeniable compliment. She was also inclined to
indulge the cynical thought that it might save Miss Lou, Scoville,
Chunk--indeed, all in whom she was interested--further trouble if,
as she phrased it, "Dat ar young cap'n gib Mad Whately he way onst
too of'un.
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