.. I wonder!--It is worth wondering
about; you know you have failed before. Yes, yes, yes; do you think I
forget it? No, but I must remind you. Are you the type to make women
happy, women with anything in them, women with nerves? Are you not
moody, morbid, uneven, full of yourself?--No, of my work. It comes to
the same thing for the woman. Could you have made her happy?--yes or no!
If no, then pull yourself together and never think of it. Isn't it
always better to be the good friend than the tiresome husband, and, if
you care for her, to show her your best side instead of all your sides?
I thought so! Then thank your stars, and--never again!"
So the two voices, that are only one voice, within Langholm that night,
in the heavy fragrance of his soaking garden, under the half-shut eye of
a waning moon; and, having conquered him, the voice of sense and sanity
reminded him of his reward: "Remember, too, how you promised to serve
her; and how, if less by management than good luck, you have, after all,
performed the very prodigy you undertook. Go and tell her. I should go
to-night. No, it is never too late to bring good news. I should jump on
my bicycle and go now!"
The old moon's eye drooped also over Normanthorpe House, out of the
clearest sky that there had been for days.
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