He stood high in the
opinion of the big folk at Westminster, and had a future. He had a
winning way with women--a subtle, perniciously attractive way with her
sex, and to herself he had been delicately persuasive. He had the
ancient gift of picturesqueness without ornamentation. He had a strong
will and a healthy imagination. He was a man of mettle and decision.
Of all who had entered her field outside of Dyck Calhoun he was the most
attractive; he was the nearest to the possible husband which she must one
day take. And if at any day at all, why not now when she needed a man as
she had never done--when she needed to forget? The sardonic critic might
ask why she did not seek forgetfulness in flight; why she remained in
Jamaica where was what she wished to forget. There was no valid reason,
save a business one, why she should remain in Jamaica, and she was in a
quandary when she put the question. There were, however, other reasons
which she used when all else failed to satisfy her exigeant mind. There
was the question of vessels to Virginia or New York. They were few and
not good, and in any case they could have no comfortable journey to the
United States for several weeks at least, for, since the revolutionary
war, commerce with the United States was sparse.
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