And to me, and to increase my
difficulty, came a crowning pleasure; I met Thorold there. To
have a good dance and talk with him was worth certainly all
the rest. Must I give it up?
I could not bear to think so, but the difficulty helped to
prick my conscience. There had been only two fops, and I was
so enthralled already. How would it be if I had been to a
dozen? and where might it end? And the word stands, — "the
world knoweth us _not_."
It must not know me, Daisy Randolph, as in any sort belonging
to it or mixed up with it; and therefore — Daisy Randolph must
go to the hop no more. I felt the certainty of the decision
growing over me, even while I was appalled by it. I staved off
consideration all that day.
In the afternoon Mr. Thorold came and took me to see the
laboratory, and explained for me a number of curious things. I
should have had great enjoyment, if Preston had not taken it
into his head, unasked, to go along; being unluckily with me
when Thorold came. He was a thorough marplot; saying nothing
of consequence himself, and only keeping a grim watch — I
could take it as nothing else — of everything we said and did.
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