I felt it in
the dark of our first meeting; it has since become plainer,--too plain.
You know too much--far more than is good for either Jim or me to know.
You can't believe enough--all those things that Jim and I have found it
best to believe. I myself always fear that I shall be led into ways of
unbelief in your presence. That is why I can't trust Jim with you alone,
and why I could hardly trust myself there without Jim's sustaining
looks--that is why, in fact, that I shall try to shun you in all but
your approximately Peavey moments. I trust now that this shall be the
last time I must ever speak bitterly in your presence. You are
sufficiently warned."
While I spoke she had ceased rowing, and we drifted with the current. A
long time we drifted, and I rejoiced to see that I had taunted Miss
Lansdale into something like interest. I saw that she was uncertain as
to the degree of seriousness I had meant my words to convey. Once she
began as if they were wholly serious, and once again as if they had been
wholly unserious. If she at last appeared to suspect that she must
effect a compromise, I dare say she was as nearly correct as I could
have put her with any words I knew.
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