Page:E Nesbit - The Literary Sense.djvu/171

Rh mother, she wouldn't understand. You can understand. Shall I tell you?"

"Yes," she said, looking at him with frightened eyes.

"Well: look back. You think you love me. Haven't my letters always bored you a little, though they were about all the things I care for most?"

"I don't understand politics," she said sullenly.

"And I don't understand needle-work, but I could sit and watch you sew for ever and a day."

"Well, go on. What other crime have I committed besides not going into raptures over Parliament?"

She was growing angry, and he was glad. It is not so easy to hurt people when they are angry.

"And when I am talking to your mother, that bores you too, and when we are alone, you don't care to talk of anything, but—but—"

This task was harder than he had imagined possible.

"I've loved you too much, and I've shown it too plainly," she said bitterly.