"If I am committing any folly it only concerns myself; if
I cared for what people said I should not be here; if I loved
society enough to appreciate its good report I should stay with
it."
"But they say you have run away from society to pine alone for a
worthless creature--a woman who has used you, as she has used and
thrown away others--a--"
"A woman," chimed in Dick, who had thrown himself on James's bed
while his patent leathers were drying, "a woman that all the
fellers know never intended"--here, however, he met James North's
eye, and muttering something about "whole thing being too idiotic
to talk about," relapsed into silence.
"You know," continued Mrs. North, "that while we and all our set
shut our eyes to your very obvious relations with that woman, and
while I myself often spoke of it to others as a simple flirtation,
and averted a scandal for your sake, and when the climax was
reached, and she herself gave you an opportunity to sever your
relations, and nobody need have been wiser--and she'd have had all
the blame--and it's only what she's accustomed to--you--you! you,
James North!--you must nonsensically go, and, by this extravagant
piece of idiocy and sentimental tomfoolery, let everybody see how
serious the whole affair was, and how deep it hurt you! and here in
this awful place, alone--where you're half drowned to get to it and
are willing to be wholly drowned to get away! Oh, don't talk to
me! I won't hear it--it's just too idiotic for anything!"
The subject of this outburst neither spoke nor moved a single
muscle.
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