"But there are the two hundred dollars!" she cried. "What shall I say to
them about the two hundred dollars! Perhaps when I have paid the squire
his fifty dollars, I could tell him that the two hundred dollars was
gone and he could get uncle to give me some of my money. Perhaps I can
sing again!" The pictures of foreign places in a beautiful book of
David's made her heart throb. "Once I thought I could see all such
places!"
Then Katy hid her face in her hands and David's beautiful book slid from
her lap to the floor.
At Christmas time David Hartman came home. He had attained his full
height; his gray eyes looked clearly into the eyes of those who spoke to
him. He stood at the head of his class; he had gained confidence in
himself. He had asked his mother for a larger allowance and had received
it promptly. It amused him to flaunt his money in the eyes of the
college, to spend large sums as though they were nothing. He brought his
mother handsome presents, and his mother had handsome presents for him.
It seemed as though he and she finally understood each other. Of resting
his head on any one's shoulder, David thought no more; into his throat
came no choking sensations as of old. At Millerstown's pronunciations
and Millerstown's customs David laughed. When it was necessary for Katy
to be with him, she recounted to him the Millerstown news and David
listened politely. Presently it seemed to Katy that he was laughing at
her; then she said no more. It was not necessary for them to have much
speech together; Katy went down to her Aunt Sally's to sleep while David
was at home, leaving the Hartman house soon after supper. During the day
she did not see him except in his mother's presence.
"I have read some of your books," she told him one afternoon when she
sat at the window sewing and he sat on the opposite side of the kitchen
with a book, and Cassie lay asleep on the settle between them.
"That is right," said David. "I hope you have enjoyed them."
"I did." Katy laid down her sewing. If she could talk about these books
with David! "I read first of all Wanity--" oh, terrible slip of a tongue
which knew better! "I mean Vanity Fair!"
A flash came into David's eyes, a flash of bitter reminiscence. To Katy
it was a flash of amusement.
"Vanity Fair is a fine book," said David. But David's tongue betrayed
him again. David, too, said "Wanity." To Katy the tone was mocking.
Katy said no more. Katy went to visit her Aunt Sally even in the
afternoons.
"'I am brutish as the ox and the ass,'" quoted Katy.
When the preacher came to see David she could not slip away, though she
tried hard. She had to listen to the two discussing David's work. She
was even unfamiliar with the names of some of his studies.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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