Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Single mothers -- Fiction; Social classes -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
Angelica sank back in her chair.
"Oh, Lord!" she murmured, with a sob. "That was so awful! Oh, I do wish
I could go home now, without having to see him again--ever!"
She got up and went irresolutely to the door. What was she to do with
herself to forget, to overcome her terrible emotion? She knew she
needn’t expect to see either Mrs. Russell or the doctor before
lunch-time on Sunday, and it was now only ten o’clock. She didn’t know
what to do; she wanted only to be active and to be for a little time
alone.
She was not at all fond of walking as a pastime, but she set out
resolutely enough now, along the quiet country road, trying to fix her
thoughts upon Sillon and Devery and all that frank and bright existence,
and to forget this world, this house with its intolerable memories, this
man, whose very existence was an outrage to her.
"I shouldn’t have come!" she told herself. "I was a fool! I guess it
can’t be done. I guess you can’t--get over a--thing like that."
And in spite of herself came the unwelcome and terrible thought:
"How will it be, then, when you are married to Eddie and living in that
house and seeing Vincent every day?"
She tried to escape from it. She walked faster, farther; but the walk
did her no good. There was nothing in the country landscape to divert
her thoughts, nothing to interest her. She had the purposeful gait of
the city dweller; she wanted to get somewhere, and she wanted to be
startled into attention with fascinating shop-windows, blazing signs,
things and people always passing her. The quiet, all about, made the
sound of her own firm step on the macadam road annoyingly loud and
regular. The bright, clear sky overhead, the leaves somberly brilliant
in their glorious death, filled her with impatience and loneliness. She
turned back.
And the first living creature she saw on the road was Vincent, coming to
meet her.
She didn’t falter. They went on, nearer and nearer to each other,
steadily, rapidly; but her heart began to beat with suffocating
violence.
"Maybe he’ll try to kill me," she thought. "It’s so lonely here--and he
hates me so! Well, I guess that’s the best thing that could happen to
me!"
But as he drew near, he held out his hand.
"Angelica!" he cried. "Oh, Angelica, _why_ did I speak that way to you?
When I’ve been longing and longing----”
"Better stop!" she said. "I’d rather have you talk that way than any
other."
He had turned and was walking by her side.
"Don’t you see?" he said. "All this bitterness and wrangling--it’s all
part of the same thing--part of our love for each other. It’s the
exasperation, the rage, of frustration. When we’re apart we suffer so,
and in our suffering we blindly try to hurt each other."
"Do you mean to say you’re trying to pretend that we _love_ each other?"
she cried.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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