Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/185

Rh improvement there was—and how much time I’ve had to improve in!”

“It is a long time, isn’t it?” Bessy assented. “I feel so intimate, still, with the old Justine of the convent, and I don’t know the new one a bit. Just think—I’ve a great girl of my own, almost as old as we were when we went to the Sacred Heart. But perhaps you don’t know anything about me either. You see, I married again two years ago, and my poor baby died last March … so I have only Cicely. It was such a disappointment—I wanted a boy dreadfully, and I understand little babies so much better than a big girl like Cicely …… Oh, dear, here is Juliana Gaines bringing up some more tiresome people! It’s such a bore, but John says I must know them all. Well, thank goodness we’ve only one more day in this dreadful place—and of course I shall see you, dear, before we go

XI

FTER conducting Miss Brent to his wife, John Amherst, by the exercise of considerable strategic skill, had once more contrived to detach himself from the throng on the lawn, and, regaining a path in the shrubbery, had taken refuge on the verandah of the house.

Here, under the shade of the awning, two ladies were [ 169 ]