"Her sensibilities
have been too blunted by association with those Washington
vulgarians," he reasoned, "for her to realize the enormity of my
offense, but she realizes enough to look down at me more
contemptuously every time she recalls it." However, the greater
the blunder the greater the necessity of repairing. He resolutely
thrust his self-abasing thoughts to the background of his mind,
and began afresh.
"I'm sure," said he, "you'd not mind, once you got used to it."
She was startled out of her abstraction. "Used to--what?" she
inquired.
"To getting up early."
"Oh!" She gave a relieved laugh. "Still harping on that. How
persistent you are!"
"You could accomplish twice as much if you got up early and made a
right start."
She frowned slightly. "Couldn't think of it," said she, in the
tone of one whose forbearance is about at an end. "I hate the
early morning."
"We usually hate what's best for us. But, if we're sensible, we do
it until it becomes a habit that we don't mind--or positively
like."
This philosophy of the indisputable and the sensible brimmed the
measure. "What would you think of me," said she, in her
pleasantest, most deliberately irritating way in the world, "if I
were to insist that you get up late and breakfast late? You should
learn to let live as well as to live.
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