Fan : The Story of a Young Girl's LifeHudson, W. H. (William Henry)
General
Fan : The Story of a Young Girl's Life
Hudson, W. H. (William Henry)
Fiction
After hearing this explanation her daughter left the room without more
words. In a few minutes she came down again with hat and gloves on, a
book in her hand, and went away by herself, feeling far from happy in
her mind. She had so confidently looked forward to a morning with her
pupil, and had proposed to go somewhat further than she had ventured on
the previous evening in a study of her character. For it seemed to her
at first so simple a character, so affectionate and clinging, reflecting
itself so transparently in her expressive face, and making itself known
so clearly in her voice and manner. Then that mystifying change had
occurred in the orchard, when her words had been eagerly listened to,
and had seemed to find an echo in the girl's heart, while her advances
had met with no response, and her affectionate caresses had been shrunk
from, as though they had given pain. Then the suspicion about her mother
had come to disturb her mind; but she had been anxious not to judge
hastily and without sufficient cause, and had succeeded in putting it
from her as an unworthy thought. Now it came back to her, and remained
and rooted itself in her mind. Now she understood why her mother, with
an ostentatious pretence of fairness, even of generosity, towards her
daughter, had left it to Fan to decide whether she would walk in the
woods or spend the morning receiving religious instruction at home. Now
she understood why Fan, a lover of flowers and of the singing of birds,
had preferred the house and the irksome lessons. Her mother, in her
fanatical zeal, had been too quick for her, and had prejudiced the
girl's mind against her, acting with a meanness and treachery which
filled her with the greatest resentment and scorn.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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