She had slipped away from those who, like
myself, would have stood her friends. But before I could ask the
question Richard Dawson himself came into the room.
I was startled and a little embarrassed at first sight of him. I had had
no idea that he was at Damerstown. And his face was sadly marked and
pitted with the small-pox.
"Miss Devereux, you must forgive my presenting myself before you with
this hideous face, but there are some things I want to tell you. There,
don't look at me! Take this."
He picked up a Japanese fan and handed it to me and the action hurt me.
I compelled myself to look at him without flinching.
"You are not at all hideous," I said. "No one who cared for you would
think you hideous."
"Why, no," he said. "My mother looks at me as though I had the skin of a
young child--and there is another---- Miss Bawn, I wish you happiness. I
am very glad the better man has won."
"You are very generous."
While we talked Mrs. Dawson got up and left us. She was one of those
people who are always forgetting things and going in search of them, so
the action had no special significance.
"You are very generous," I said. And then I asked him the question which
was in my mind.
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