"
"If you'd been less anxious to please," suggested he bitterly,
"and more courageous about being your own real self, you'd not
have got yourself into this mess."
"Ah--but that wasn't my fault," replied she absently. "It was the
fault of my training. Ever since I can remember I've been taught
to be on my guard, lest the men shouldn't like me." In her new
freedom she looked back tranquilly upon the struggle she was at
last emancipated from, and philosophized about it. "What a mistake
mothers make in putting worry about getting a husband into their
daughters' heads. Believe me, Grant, that dread makes wretched
what ought to be the happiest time of a girl's life."
"Rita," he pleaded, "stop this nonsense, and say you'll marry me."
"No, thanks," said she. "I've chosen. And I'm well content."
She gave him a last tantalizing look and went out on the veranda,
to go along it to the outdoor stairway. Arkwright gazed after her
through a fierce conflict of emotions. Was she really in earnest?
Could it be possible that Josh Craig had somehow got a hold over
her? "Or, is it that she doesn't trust me, thinks I'd back down if
she were to throw him over and rely on me?" No, there was
something positively for Craig in her tone and expression.
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