Beautiful; wonderful! She didn't love me then and she doesn't now; but the
most marvellous woman in the world needs me--and I will not fail her.
I wish I could take her out of the city for a change of mental atmosphere.
She shrinks from her father's suggestion of a summer on the farm. But in
time her wholesome nature must reassert itself; she must become, if not
again the fresh, light-hearted girl I knew a year ago, a sweet and
gracious woman whose sufferings will have added pathos to her charm.
And even now she's not to be judged like other women; before the shining
of her beauty, reproach falls powerless. It is my sacred task to guard
her--to soothe her awakening from all that nightmare of inflated hopes and
vain imaginings. Kitty Reid and---yes, and little Ethel--will help me.
Kitty is a good fellow.
"Why, cert.," she said when I begged her last Wednesday to take care of
Helen. "Married! Did you say married? Oh, Cadge, quit pegging shoes!"
Jumping up from the drawing table, Kitty left streams of India ink making
her beastesses all tigers while she called to Miss Bryant, who was
pounding viciously upon a typewriter:--
"Cadge, did you hear? Cadge! The Princess is going to be married.
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