The yellow book: an illustrated quarterly (6.1895)

A New Poster

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come. So I made Jim put in that clause about the property.
You see, I meant your love for me to stand the test of a sacrifice,
and I wanted mine to be free from a suspicion of self-interest.
Do you blame me very much, dear ? ”
She let him finish his speech without interruption. Her first
impulse was to laugh hysterically ; every nerve and every instinct
she possessed seemed alive ; it almost hurt her to think ; and the
main impression she gathered from his words was the humorous
aspect of them in the confidence of success that underlay their
humility. Why was every one so sure of being accepted by
her ?
She did not speak for an instant or two. She sat and stared
stupidly in front of her. He came a little closer to her with a
smile on his face, and then she broke away from him with a
distracted cry. It seemed to his slowly awakening comprehension
as though the air he was breathing were shivered by the pain of
that cry.
“ Oh, Willis, don’t ! Go away, leave me, hate me, can’t you ?
Oh, don’t you see ? I can’t, I can’t. Take your eyes away, they
hurt me so. I cannot marry you now. What evil power sent
you here this morning ? Why couldn’t you wait until everybody
knew ? Don’t you understand, I—I have promised some one else ?
There, go.”
It was his turn now to be silent, and to stare in complete
stupefaction. She bore it as long as she could, and then with a
bitter sense of the comedy of the situation she stammered out a
trembling supplication :
“Oh, Willis, do scold me—or something. Don’t be so
ridiculously unlike yourself ! ”
She crouched away from him in the far corner of the sofa, and
buried her face in the cushions. There was no sound except the
rushing