"But you've not seen yet what people think of what you have written ...
no ... you see the poems haven't been published yet, which is very
vexing ... and so I thought ... I mean the Rector thought that if there
was any difficulty he would like to help you to publish them ... yes ...
rather than go away to Persia ... you know ... yes ... poor little
Pauline was crying nearly all night and I don't think you ought to go
away suddenly like this ... no ... and we couldn't find an atlas
anywhere!"
"You think I ought not to go?" said Guy, and he realized as he spoke
that he was disappointed.
"I do think that after all these months of hoping for your poems to be a
success that you ought at least to try them first, and then afterwards
we can talk about Persia. I'm afraid you think I've been too strict
about Pauline ... perhaps I have ... yes ... and so I think that now
Spring is here you can go out every day ... yes ... charming ... now
that the weather is getting better...."
But now every day, thought Guy bitterly, there would be recriminations
between them.
"Of course if you think I ought not to go, I won't," he said. "I'll
write to Comeragh and refuse."
"I'm sure you're glad, aren't you?"
"Oh, rather."
"We all understood why you thought you ought to go, and now I've another
plan ... yes ... charming.... I'm going to send Pauline away for a month
... with Miss Verney ... yes ... charming, charming plan ... and you
must make arrangements at once about your poems ... and then perhaps you
could give them to Pauline for her birthday...."
"But I don't think the Rector ought to pay for them," Guy objected.
"The Rector wants to pay for them. But of course he won't say anything
about it, and you will have to make the arrangements yourself."
"You're all so good to me, and I feel such a fraud," said Guy.
"You'd better make arrangements with the man you sent them to first ...
and Pauline needn't know anything about it ... and I shan't say I've
persuaded you not to go to China ... or else she will be worried ...
she's looking rather pale ... I think two or three weeks by the seaside
... Lyme Regis perhaps or Cromer ... Lyme Regis, I think, because the
trains to Folkestone have been torn out ... yes ... charming, charming."
After lunch Guy told Pauline in the garden that he had decided not to
accept the post he had been offered, and she was so obviously overjoyed
at his decision, that he no longer had the heart to feel the slightest
disappointment.
"Guy, I've been so stupid," she told him. "I've depressed you without
any reason, but I will come back from Scarborough quite well."
Guy began to laugh.
"Oh, why are you laughing?"
"Dearest, because I cannot make out where you really are going."
"Scarborough, because Miss Verney has chosen Scarborough."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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