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"Well what is it, Lorna?" she asked in a low, nervous tone. "Look at me, dear." Etta tried to obey, could not. "Don't do it yet," said Susan. "Wait a few more days." "Wait for what?" "I don't know. But wait." "You get four, I get only three and there's no chance of a raise. I work slower instead of faster. I'm going to be discharged soon.
Her dress was of the purest white, very sweet and simple, without a line of ornament, for she herself adorned it. Lorna Doone of my early love; in the days when she blushed for her name before me by reason of dishonesty; but now the Lady Lorna Dugal as far beyond reproach as above my poor affection. All my heart, and all my mind, gathered themselves upon her. Would she see me, or would she pass?
There is no need for my farming harder than becomes a man of weight. Lorna has great stores of money, though we never draw it out, except for some poor neighbor; unless I find her a sumptuous dress, out of her own perquisites. And this she always looks upon as a wondrous gift from me; and kisses me much when she puts it on, and walks like the noble woman she is.
'Do you mean to say that Lorna is gone? asked Annie, in great amazement; yet leaping at the truth, as women do, with nothing at all to leap from. 'Gone. And I never shall see her again. It serves me right for aspiring so.
At the beginning of this month I had a great treat. Lorna came to stay with me for three days. She was visiting a friend twenty miles off, and came here in the middle of her visit just for that short time, so that there need be no necessity for Wallace to know anything about it.
On the other hand, Lorna considered him a worthy but foolish old gentleman; to whom true happiness meant no more than money and high position. These two last she had been ready to abandon wholly, and had in part escaped from them, as the enemies of her happiness. And she took advantage of the times, in a truly clever manner.
For Lorna had so won them all, by her kind and gentle ways, and her mode of hearkening to everybody's trouble, and replying without words, as well as by her beauty, and simple grace of all things, that I could almost wish sometimes the rest would leave her more to me.
Nay, I am wrong; therein I yield the palm to you, my dear. To think that I can act so! No wonder they want me in London, as an ornament for the stage, John. Now in after days, when I heard of Lorna as the richest, and noblest, and loveliest lady to be found in London, I often remembered that little scene, and recalled every word and gesture, wondering what lay under it.
Now hearken to one who wishes thee well, and plainly sees the end of it stick thou to the winning side, and have naught to do with the other one. 'That, said I, in great haste and hurry, 'is the very thing I want to do, if I only knew which was the winning side, for the sake of Lorna that is to say, for the sake of my dear mother and sisters, and the farm.
Susan had no answer for this argument. They went several squares up Vine Street in silence. Then Etta burst out again: "I'm frozen through and through, Lorna, and I'm dead tired and hungry. The wind's cutting the flesh off my bones. What in the hell does it matter what becomes of us? Let's get warm, for God's sake. Let's go to a house. They're in Longworth Street the best ones."
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