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MacDonald, George, 1824-1905

"Weighed and Wanting"

"But if seeing you so suddenly had not
made me forget, I should have had a bath as soon as I got home. I
_am_ sorry I let you come near me!"
"One has no right either to take or carry infection," insisted lord
Gartley, perhaps a little glad of the height upon which an opportunity
of finding fault set him for the first time above her. "But there is no
time to talk about it now. I hope you will use what preventives you can.
It is very wrong to trifle with such things!"
"Indeed it is!" answered Hester; "and I say again I am sorry I forgot.
You see how it was--don't you? It was you made me forget!"
But his lordship was by no means now in a smiling mood. He bade her a
somewhat severe good night, then hesitated, and thinking it hardly
signified now, and he must not look too much afraid, held out his hand.
But Hester drew back a third time, saying, "No, no; you must not," and
with solemn bow he turned and went, his mind full of conflicting
feelings and perplexing thoughts:--What a glorious creature she
was!--and what a dangerous! He recalled the story of the young woman
brought up on poisons, whom no man could come near but at the risk of
his life.


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