New England -- Fiction; New England -- Politics and government -- Fiction
It is not improbable that Miss Janet Duncan may appear with Miss Sally
Broke in another volume. The style of her conversation is known, and
there is no room to reproduce it here. She, too, had a heart, but she was
a young woman given to infatuations, as Cynthia rightly guessed. Cynthia
must spend many afternoons at her house--lunch with her, drive with her.
For one omission Cynthia was thankful: she did not mention Bob
Worthington's name. There was the romance under Miss Duncan's nose, and
she did not see it. It is frequently so with romancers.
Cynthia's impassiveness, her complete poise, had fascinated Miss Duncan
with the others. Had there been nothing beneath that exterior, Janet
would never have guessed it, and she would have been quite as happy.
Cynthia saw very clearly that Mr. Worthington or no other man or woman
could force Bob to marry Janet.
The next morning, in such intervals as her studies permitted, Janet
continued her attentions to Cynthia. That same morning she had brought a
note from her father to Miss Sadler, of the contents of which Janet knew
nothing. Miss Sadler retired into her study to read it, and two newspaper
clippings fell out of it under the paper-cutter. This was the note:--
"My DEAR MISS SADLER:
"Mrs. Duncan has referred your note to me, and I enclose two
clippings which speak for themselves. Miss Wetherell, I believe,
stands in the relation of ward to the person to whom they refer, and
her father was a sort of political assistant to this person.
Although, as you say, we are from that part of the country (Miss
Sadler bad spoken of the Duncans as the people of importance there),
it was by the merest accident that Miss Wetherell's connection with
this Jethro Bass was brought to my notice.
"Sincerely yours,
"ALEXANDER DUNCAN."
It is pleasant to know that there were people in the world who could snub
Miss Sadler; and there could be no doubt, from the manner in which she
laid the letter down and took up the clippings, that Miss Sadler felt
snubbed: equally, there could be no doubt that the revenge would fall on
other shoulders than Mr. Duncan's. And when Miss Sadler proceeded to read
the clippings, her hair would have stood on end with horror had it not
been so efficiently plastered down. Miss Sadler seized her pen, and began
a letter to Mrs. Merrill. Miss Sadler's knowledge of the
proprieties--together with other qualifications--had made her school what
it was. No Cynthia Wetherells had ever before entered its sacred portals,
or should again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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