Earle and the other members of the Institute. It did
not suit her not to be able to gratify her growing taste in clothes and
in other lines of expenditure, and there were moments when she
experienced the need of being petted and made much of by a man. She was
conscious of loneliness, and in this mood she pitied herself as a victim
of untoward circumstances, one who had wasted the freshness of her young
life, and missed the happiness which the American wife is apt to find
waiting for her. Under the spell of this nostalgia she wrote a poem
entitled "The Bitter Sweets of Solitude," and disposed of it for five
dollars to the _Sentinel_. The price shocked her, for the verses seemed
flesh of her flesh. Still, five dollars was better than nothing, and she
discerned from the manner of the newspaper editor that he cared little
whether she left them or not. It was on that evening that she received a
letter from Littleton, stating that he was on the eve of leaving New
York for Benham. He was coming to consult concerning certain further
interior decorations which the committee had decided to add to the
church.
Selma's nerves vibrated blissfully as she read the news. For some
reason, which she had never seen fit definitely to define, she had
chosen not to acquaint Littleton with the fact of her divorce.
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