"Oh no! All she had to do was simply to stay put."
"Don't you think Ah might have improved it if Ah had looked better?" the girl asked, gravely.
"Oh, you couldn't!" said Fulkerson, and he went off triumphant in their applause and their cries of "Which? which?"
Mrs. Leighton sank deep into an accusing gloom when at last she found herself alone with her daughter. "I don't know what you are thinking about, Alma Leighton. If you don't like Mr. Beaton—"
"I don't."
"You don't? You know better than that. You know that, you did care for him."
"Oh! that's a very different thing. That's a thing that can be got over."
"Got over!" repeated Mrs. Leighton, aghast.
"Of course, it can! Don't be romantic, mamma. People get over dozens of such fancies. They even marry for love two or three times."
"Never!" cried her mother, doing her best to feel shocked; and at last looking it.
Her looking it had no effect upon Alma. "You can easily get over caring for people; but you can't get over liking them—if you like them because they are sweet and good. That's what lasts. I was a simple goose, and he imposed upon me because he was a sophisticated goose. Now the case is reversed."
"He does care for you, now. You can see it. Why do you encourage him to come here?"
"I don't," said Alma. "I will tell him to keep away if you like. But whether he comes or goes, it will be the same."
"Not to him, Alma! He is in love with you!"
"He has never said so."
"And you would really let him say so, when you intend to refuse him?"
"I can't very well refuse him till he does say so."
This was undeniable. Mrs. Leighton could only demand, in an awful tone, "May I ask why—if you cared for him; and I know you care for him still you will refuse him?"
Alma laughed. "Because—because I'm wedded to my Art, and I'm not going to commit bigamy, whatever I do."
"Alma!"
"Well, then, because I don't like him—that is, I don't believe in him, and don't trust him. He's fascinating, but he's false and he's fickle. He can't help it, I dare say."
"And you are perfectly hard. Is it possible that you were actually pleased to have Mr. Fulkerson tease you about Mr. Dryfoos?"
"Oh, good-night, now, mamma! This is becoming personal."
PG EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
Artists never do anything like other people
Ballast of her instinctive despondency
Clinging persistence of such natures
Dividend: It's a chicken before it's hatched
Gayety, which lasted beyond any apparent reason for it
Hopeful recklessness
How much can a man honestly earn without wronging or oppressing
I cannot endure this—this hopefulness of yours
If you dread harm enough it is less likely to happen
It must be your despair that helps you to bear up
Marry for love two or three times
No man deserves to suffer at the hands of another
Patience with mediocrity putting on the style of genius
Person talks about taking lessons, as if they could learn it
Say when he is gone that the woman gets along better without him
Shouldn't ca' fo' the disgrace of bein' poo'—its inconvenience
Timidity of the elder in the presence of the younger man