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Show Page 177 I refused him, he comes to see Jane. They disappear for long walks together and she returns with a smirk upon her lips and her hair in a tangled mat. Why can John not see through her sweetsop ways? At least Richard still pays me court, though it matters little to me. We walk together in the evenings, but this does not cheer me. He is kind in his way and I have grown fond of him over the past two years, but I fear the man has little humor in his soul. But then I see him laugh with Jane, so perhaps I do not bring out the best in him with my doleful moods Though we have enough food this winter, I have again become thin. Next to Jane, I feel a faded violet. ******************** "What is the matter with you, Sarah?" Anne asked one day when I had gone to visit. "You are thin and your face droops as though dragged down by sorrow. Are you ill?" I assured her my health was fine. She studied me for a time, then shook her head as though I had vexed her. "I think I know what might be wrong," she said then. "When I suggested it to Cisly, he laughed. But when I pointed out to him that you and John no longer visit us together, he did not think me so foolish. You have had a brabble with John." |