Page:The Galaxy, Volume 6.djvu/94

80 "And did she break a blood-vessel, or go into a decline?" asked Sue Barnes, her round face ludicrously elongated, while her eyes twinkled away a sympathetic tear.

"Well, no!" Miss Sanford admitted unwillingly, evidently appreciating the damage her mournful recital must sustain through the want of this orthodox sequel. "But she was in a sad way for awhile. Her family kept the miserable affair quiet as possible for her sake. The truth was communicated to nobody except a few very intimate and discreet friends. But you can't wonder that I have hated the sound of Professor Fordham's name ever since."

"Very natural, I am sure!" murmured the plastic Sue.

Hester made a parade of wiping her eyes with her laced handkerchief.

"Not that I ever liked him. Poor Maria brought him around to our house one evening on purpose to have me see him. And the next morning she was in bright and early to ask what was my opinion. 'I don't fancy him in the least, my dear,' I said to her, candidly. 'He has a cold, severe eye, and a stubborn mouth. He is quiet in manner because he is unfeeling. If you marry him, he will rule you with a rod of steel, and make your life a burden.' She cried bitterly when I said that, and when I would not retract a single word, she left me in a tremendous huff. She would neither speak to nor visit me, until the rupture came. Then she sent for me, and begged my pardon, lamenting bitterly that she had not taken my advice. 'If I had been as clear-sighted as you, Hester, what wretchedness I would have been spared!' she sobbed. I am very acute in my perception of character."

Jessie was knocking the balls to and fro, in reckless disregard of the laws controlling the game, but the sharp click of the ivory spheres did not distract general attention from Miss Sanford.

"I never was more astonished in all my born days!" said Selina, conscientiously reserved on the subject of her pre-natal experience. "Mr. Fordham looks so pleasant, yet so dignified, nobody ever thought of his behaving in any but a gentlemanly manner."

"And people in Hamilton—students, professors, and all, consider him a piece of perfection," added Sue.

"He is a detestable snake in the grass, then!" Hester said vehemently, her energy so disproportionate to the occasion that doubts would have arisen in an impartial mind of her own belief in the affecting narration she had glibly poured forth.

"Take care, dear!" cautioned Fanny. "There may be extenuating circumstances of which we are ignorant. Mr. Fordham's character as a gentleman and a Christian is not to be lightly disputed. Every question has two sides, papa says, and he is wisest who suspends judgment until both are heard."

The heiress sniffed haughtily and her thin skin was dappled with fiery red spots to the root of her hair.

"I thank you for the inference. Miss Provost! Would I repeat a story unless I were sure it was true in every particular? If you question my veracity, you can ask dozens of her acquaintances in her native place who will confirm my statement. And you may be very thankful if you don't at the same time hear some other ugly facts about your christian gentleman that I have chosen to omit. If I have a fault, it is that I am too charitable in my judgment of human nature. I am perpetually being imposed upon."

The cue that had been stationary while Fanny put in her plea for mercy to