? ? ? ? I try to stay my tears, and to reply, 'Oh, Dora, love, as fit as I to be a husband!'
? ? ? ? 'I don't know,' with the old shake of her curls. 'Perhaps! But if I had been more fit to be married I might have made you more so, too. Besides, you are very clever, and I never was.'
? ? ? ? 'We have been very happy, my sweet Dora.'
? ? ? ? 'I was very happy, very. But, as years went on, my dear boy would have wearied of his child-wife. She would have been less and less a companion for him. He would have been more and more sensible of what was wanting in his home. She wouldn't have improved. It is better as it is.'
? ? ? ? 'Oh, Dora, dearest, dearest, do not speak to me so. Every word seems a reproach!'
? ? ? ? 'No, not a syllable!' she answers, kissing me. 'Oh, my dear, you never deserved it, and I loved you far too well to say a reproachful word to you, in earnest - it was all the merit I had, except being pretty - or you thought me so. Is it lonely, down- stairs, Doady?'
? ? ? ? 'Very! Very!'
? ? ? ? 'Don't cry! Is my chair there?'
? ? ? ? 'In its old place.'
? ? ? ? 'Oh, how my poor boy cries! Hush, hush! Now, make me one promise.
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