The child wears the mother's skirts
enviously while the mother mourns her youth. Expectation leads us to
the dividing line of life, and from there retrospection carries us to
the end. Experience teaches us that fire burns and that water
quenches; beyond this we have learned but little.
This morning Patty was up with the dawn. She did not trouble to wake
the groom, but saddled and bridled the horse herself. She mounted and
rode quietly into the street. She did not glance at Warrington's house
while approaching or passing it, but once she had left it in the rear
she turned quickly, flushing as if she had caught herself in some
weakness. She directed the horse toward the west, crossing the city
before she reached the open country. Here the west wind, young and
crisp, blew away the last vestige of heaviness from her eyes. She
urged the horse into a canter and maintained this gait for a mile or
more. Then she reined in to a walk.
Three weeks! And all this time she had not even breathed a word of it,
but had hugged the viper to her heart in silence. She dropped the
reins on the neck of the horse and took a letter from the pocket of
her riding-coat.
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