Page:Outlawandlawmak00praegoog.djvu/61

Rh "Did you really see me, Ina? And you never said a word. That was awfully like you. You'd never let me suspect that you knew how abominably petty I had been. It was all vanity."

"No, no, Elsie, don't say that."

"It's true. I've been like that all my life, and I'm ashamed of it. I hate myself sometimes. I can't bear a man who has admired me to take up with anyone else—even my own sister. I'm a mean creature."

"You know you are not. I've seen you take the greatest pains to dress up girls in your own finery, so that they might have as good a chance of getting partners as you. You have dressed me up in the same way. You have exulted in my little conquests. You know you have, Elsie. And if you were jealous for a moment it was because you cared. Do you think I'm not certain of that?"

"Ina, you are trembling. What's the matter?"

"I can't bear to hear you cry yourself down."

"I shouldn't have been so horrid, Ina, if you had cared. It's a mercy you didn't, for I might have had a little trouble in getting up to such a height of heroic abnegation. Frank Hallett wouldn't suit you, Ina, He is too solid and steady, and for two angels to marry is a waste of regenerating material. No, Ina dear, you are clearly intended for a sinner."

The girls laughed, both a little sadly. Elsie went on, "Do you know, Ina, I think it's a pity we weren't taught to earn our own living. I think it's a pity in a kind of way that we are pretty. If we had been ugly there wouldn't have been so much bother about this marrying business. As it is, there's been nothing else for us to do. You are married, and it is all right, or at any rate I hope it is all right for you, but here am I, twenty, too poor—and in three or four years' time I shall be losing my good looks and there'll be nothing for me to fall back upon. Now if we had been governesses, or even plain needlewomen, there would not have been any necessity for falling in love."

"Elsie!"

"Oh, yes, it is a very disagreeable necessity. The only