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Page 12
Gervase, ill content
Because he thought "What! dares she count the girl
So far below my marrying she'll scold
As if our love were wicked?" yet forbore,
Choosing to seem as if there could no slight
Be meant against his darling. He but asked
"Where is my Lota?" with a firmer stress:
Then Mrs Westland shook and stammered, half
As if she'd storm and half as if she'd cry:
"Now Gervase, tell me - it is hard to ask;
I cannot think it of my brother's child -
Has she not told you how she stands? You know
Her history?" Now he knew no history,
But thought that he knew Lota. "All," he said
Indignantly, "that I need know, I know,
And will hear no more but from Lota's self:
Now let me see her."
Ethel at the word
Broke in with passion "Dare you flout us so?"
And Constance's swelled eyes brimmed with new tears;
But Evelyn spoke up quietly and strong,
"Ethel you cannot know what Gervase means;
There is some secret which we do not know;
I trust in him and Lota." Gervase cried
"You have spoken safely, Evelyn; in that:
But there's no secret, and I ask to see
My Lota."
In this while the flurried aunt
Had sat uneasy, having more to say,
And yet not knowing what. With nervous stir
She rose "Nay Gervase, come and talk with me."
He followed; but his anger was white hot,
Ready to scorch a finger laid on it.
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