Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/64

 MARK TWAIN

right form for it. The book does it better; we will fall back on the book and have a cake-walk:

It was easy to divine that some restless grief possessed him; Mary herself was not unlearned in the lore of pain. His generous zeal in her father s behalf, his spiritual sonship to Godwin, his reverence for her mother s memory, were guarantees with Mary of his excellence. 1 The new friends could not lack subjects of discourse, and underneath their words about Mary s mother, and &quot;Political Justice,&quot; and &quot;Rights of Woman,&quot; were two young hearts, each feeling toward the other, each perhaps unaware, trembling in the direction of the other. The desire to assuage the suffering of one whose happiness has grown precious to us may become a hunger of the spirit as keen as any other, and this hunger now possessed Mary s heart; when her eyes rested unseen on Shelley, it was with a look full of the ardor of a &quot;soothing

pity.&quot;

Yes, that is better and has more composure. That is just the way it happened. He told her about the wet-nurse, she told him about political justice; he told her about the deadly sister-in-law, she told him about her mother; he told her about the bonnet- shop, she murmured back about the rights of woman ; then he assuaged her, then she assuaged him; then he assuaged her some more, next she assuaged him some more; then they both assuaged one another simultaneously; and so they went on by the hour assuaging and assuaging and assuaging, until at last what was the result? They were in love. It will happen so every time.

He had married a woman who, as he now persuaded himself, had never truly loved him, who loved only his fortune and his rank, and who proved her selfishness by deserting him in his misery.

1 What she was after was guarantees of his excellence. That he stood ready to desert his wife and child was one of them, apparently.

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