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What if Eunice should suspect an attachment towards her, on my part. What if oh, horror! I had unconsciously said or done something to impress Miss Ringtop herself with the same conviction? I shuddered as the thought crossed my mind. One thing was very certain: this suspense was not to be endured much longer. "We had an unusually silent breakfast the next morning.
"This seemed to us a dark and bitter reflection; but one or another of us recalled some illustration of human hypocrisy, and the evidences, by the simple fact of repetition, gradually led to a division of opinion Hollins, Shelldrake, and Miss Ringtop on the dark side, and the rest of us on the bright.
"We had an unusually silent breakfast the next morning. Abel scarcely spoke, which the others attributed to a natural feeling of shame, after his display of the previous evening. Hollins and Shelldrake discussed Temperance, with a special view to his edification, and Miss Ringtop favored us with several quotations about 'the maddening bowl, but he paid no attention to them....
There was another circumstance, in connection with this subject, which troubled me not a little. Miss Ringtop evidently sought my company, and made me, as much as possible, the recipient of her sentimental outpourings. I was not bold enough to repel her, indeed, I had none of that tact which is so useful in such emergencies, and she seemed to misinterpret my submission.
As neither Eunice and Miss Ringtop, nor Hollins and Abel showed any disposition to room together, I quietly gave up to them the four rooms in the second story, and installed myself in one of the attic chambers. Here I could hear the music of the rain close above my head, and through the little gable window, as I lay in bed, watch the colors of the morning gradually steal over the distant shores.
Her hallucination was so monstrous, and gave me such a shock of desperate alarm, that I spoke, on the impulse of the moment, with great energy, without regarding how her feelings might be wounded. "'You mistake! I exclaimed. 'I didn't mean that, I didn't understand you. Don't talk to me that way, don't look at me in that way, Miss Ringtop!
Damn, damn, damn, damn! I never knew it was so easy. Why, there's a pleasure in it! Try it, Pauline! try it on me! "'Oh-ooh! was all Miss Ringtop could utter. "'Abel! Abel! exclaimed Hollins, 'the beer has got into your head. "'No, it isn't Beer, it's Candor! said Abel. 'It's your own proposal, Hollins.
Eunice was unpacking some loaves of bread and paper bags of crackers; and Miss Ringtop, smiling through her ropy curls, as much as to say, 'You see, I also can perform the coarser tasks of life! occupied herself with plates and cups. We men, therefore, walked out to the garden, which we found in a promising condition.
"Miss Ringtop heaved a sigh, and repeated a stanza from her favorite poet: "'Ah, when wrecked are my desires On the everlasting Never, And my heart with all its fires Out forever, In the cradle of Creation Finds the soul resuscitation! "Shelldrake, however, turning to his wife, said "'Elviry, how many up-stairs rooms is there in that house down on the Sound?
I had a special dread of again encountering Miss Ringtop, but she was wandering up and down the bluff, under the pines, singing, 'The dream is past. There was a sound of loud voices, as we approached the stoop. Hollins, Shelldrake and his wife, and Abel Mallory were sitting together near the door.
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