"
She fled out of the room, but all that evening she was
very sweet with him, and seemed to wish in all tacit
ways to atone for her past unkindness.
She made him talk of his business, and he told her
of Corey's offer, and what he had done about it.
She did not seem to care for his part in it, however;
at which Lapham was silently disappointed a little,
for he would have liked her to praise him.
"He did it on account of Pen!"
"Well, he didn't insist upon it, anyway," said Lapham,
who must have obscurely expected that Corey would
recognise his own magnanimity by repeating his offer.
If the doubt that follows a self-devoted action--the question
whether it was not after all a needless folly--is mixed,
as it was in Lapham's case, with the vague belief that we
might have done ourselves a good turn without great risk
of hurting any one else by being a little less unselfish,
it becomes a regret that is hard to bear. Since Corey
spoke to him, some things had happened that gave Lapham
hope again.
"I'm going to tell her about it," said his wife, and she
showed herself impatient to make up for the time she
had lost. "Why didn't you tell me before, Silas?"
"I didn't know we were on speaking terms before,"
said Lapham sadly.
"Yes, that's true," she admitted, with a conscious flush.
"I hope he won't think Pen's known about it all this while.
Pages:
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431