Page:Pratt portraits - sketched in a New England suburb (IA prattportraitssk00full).pdf/79

 "You've lived for seven years without the comforts of ahome? Do you mean that, Anson?"

"I mean just that."

"And there isn't aman in Dunbridge who has been so badly off as you?"

"In some respects, no! There isn't a man in Dunbridge that is as badly off as I."

Emmeline got up from her chair and walked about the room with swift, nervous movements. Anson kept his seat and kept his determination.

At last Emmeline came back and knelt down beside his chair.

There were very few women of her day and generation who could have knelt down in just that supplicating way, and very few voices that could have sounded so beseeching as did hers.

"Anson, won't you please give me one more trial? Won't you please tell that woman not to come?"

"No, I won't," he answered stolidly. "I've made up my mind to have a little comfort, and I've engaged Mrs. Beach for a month, beginning to-morrow."

"But, Anson, for my sake, for both our sakes, tell her not to come. Oh, Anson! I cannot bear it! I am sure I cannot bear it—please—please don't let her come."

Her tone of passionate entreaty was too intense to move him. It seemed to him like play acting.

"I tell you, Emmeline," he said, getting up and leaving her kneeling there beside his chair,