I was like a person with a death wound, struggling madly through
the little time left me, absolutely indifferent to what any one thought.
I simply wanted to die fighting, to register one furious protest against
all the things I'd hated, and suffered, too! I remember reporters
coming, at first, wild with curiosity to know what took Doctor
Studdiford abroad, and why Mrs. Studdiford was living in a labourer's
house in the Mission. What impression they got I haven't the faintest
idea. Once or twice women called, just curious of course, Mrs. Hunter
and Miss Saunders--but that soon stopped. I was better hidden on
Shotwell Street than I would have been in the heart of India! Miss
Saunders came in, and met Mama and Grandma; we were having the kitchen
calcimined, the place was pretty well upset, I remember. Dear me, how
little what they thought or did or said seemed to count, when my whole
life was one blazing, agonizing cry for Jim!"
"That got better?" Richard asked huskily, after a pause.
"Rich, I think the past two, well, three years, have been the happiest
in my life," Julia said soberly. "My feet have been on solid ground.
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