Was It Right to Forgive? A Domestic RomanceBarr, Amelia E.
General
Was It Right to Forgive? A Domestic Romance
Barr, Amelia E.
Fiction
"I think Yanna has quite spoiled Harry. Will you believe that I used
to meet him driving with the baby last summer; and he trotted to
meeting every Sunday with Yanna. I can tell you, mother, that your day
is over. Yanna has Harry quite under her thumb now, or I am much
mistaken."
"And the Cora Mitchin affair?"
"I should say it is dead and buried. I do not see the girl's name at
any theatre, and her picture is not staring you in the face from every
window this season. She has been retired evidently."
"We shall see. Now, Rose, throw aside this nonsensical air of
seclusion and sorrow. Get some pretty costumes, and prepare gradually
to open your house. A woman with your income aping the recluse is
ridiculous."
"You do me so much good, mamma."
"Well, my dear, there is nothing for wrong but to try and put it
right. I think you have been to blame, but there is no use going about
the world to accuse yourself. You must try and make your peace with
your husband. It is such bad form, this quarreling. Send for Yanna and
Miss Alida, and ask their advice--just to flatter them. You _must_
have the support of your family."
"I do not speak to either of them. I have made a business of offending
them. Yanna was the inventor of the Duval romance; and Alida Van
Hoosen thinks her thoughts. They have been living together."
"I am awfully sorry you have offended them. Can you not be friends
with Yanna?"
"I don't want to be friends with her. I have quarreled with Harry,
too. The idea of Harry coming to tell me my sins! I suppose Yanna sent
him. Well, he heard the truth about his own sins, for once in his
life! Mamma, I have quarreled with every one but you."
As she was speaking, Harry entered. He took his mother in his arms,
and then turned to Rose. "Good morning, Rose," he said pleasantly. But
Rose looked past him, and without a word in reply, she left the
house.
"I am sorry you have quarreled with your sister, Harry," said Mrs.
Filmer. "If ever she needed your countenance and aid, it is now."
"It is not my fault. Has she told you about the last----?"
"I have heard a dozen versions of the affair. Poor girl!"
"Mother, you ought not to condone her sins."
"You made no objections to my condoning your sins, Harry--much more
flagrant ones, too. And I do not think your wife need to put on so
many airs about poor Rose."
"Rose has wantonly wounded Yanna's feelings very often."
"Poor feelings! I wonder how they endured the pretty Cora's
extravagances of every kind."
"Mother!"
"Well, Harry, there is no use in our quarreling. Where is Antony?"
"In Arizona."
"It is a great shame. I shall make your father go and see him."
"There is no necessity. A word of contrition from Rose will bring him
home. Without that word, nothing will bring him. You had better get
Rose to write to him. A dozen words will do."
"She will never write one."
"Then she had better get a divorce."
"And lose all Antony's money!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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