She
was not to be pitied for that, and to pretend to condole with her
would have been to make concessions to the idea that she had ever had
a right to think of Morris.
"I put my foot on this idea from the first, and I keep it there now,"
said the Doctor. "I don't see anything cruel in that; one can't keep
it there too long." To this Mrs. Almond more than once replied that
if Catherine had got rid of her incongruous lover, she deserved the
credit of it, and that to bring herself to her father's enlightened
view of the matter must have cost her an effort that he was bound to
appreciate.
"I am by no means sure she has got rid of him," the Doctor said.
"There is not the smallest probability that, after having been as
obstinate as a mule for two years, she suddenly became amenable to
reason. It is infinitely more probable that he got rid of her."
"All the more reason you should be gentle with her."
"I AM gentle with her. But I can't do the pathetic; I can't pump up
tears, to look graceful, over the most fortunate thing that ever
happened to her."
"You have no sympathy," said Mrs. Almond; "that was never your strong
point. You have only to look at her to see that, right or wrong, and
whether the rupture came from herself or from him, her poor little
heart is grievously bruised."
"Handling bruises--and even dropping tears on them--doesn't make them
any better! My business is to see she gets no more knocks, and that
I shall carefully attend to.
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