Page:Maud Howe - Atlanta in the South.djvu/186

 to the spot where the organ whose existence her friend denied is usually supposed to have its place.

"I am sure I don't know which one loves you the best! And then their reconciliation,—just like Damon and Pythias, you know; only I forget if they ever quarrelled. I knew it all the time, so did Philip, that Feuardent had shot young Thoron; and yet Philip never said one word to clear himself. I call it angelic of him; and his face when he stretched out his hand to Robert was just like a saint out of heaven giving his forgiveness and blessing to an erring sinner."

Margaret nodded, and picked up the dog again.

Mrs. Harden went on: "As to Robert Feuardent, I never liked him half so well before in my life; he was so splendidly unsparing in his self-denunciation that he made one feel he had n't been so very bad after all. How handsome and black he looked,—just like Erebus, or Pluto, or some of those dark creatures. I wonder what they fought about. There was a woman mixed up in it somehow—an anomalous creature who some people insist is a lady, while others declare that she is a vulgar colored woman. I don't believe she was on the other side of Colorado, as we call it; Feuardent never could have stooped so low. But I must n't talk about such things before your innocence; forgive me! Tell