I
don't despair yet of converting you to our side, just as you evidently
don't despair of inducing a certain lady some day to change her mind. I,
for one, think that she is more fitted by nature to be a wife than a
college president, so I shall await with interest more news from my
little bird." Selma felt that she was talking to greater advantage than
almost ever before. Her last remark banished every trace of a smile from
her adversary's face, and he stood regarding her with a preternatural
gravity, which should have been appalling, but which she welcomed as a
sign of serious feeling on his part. She felt, too, that at last she had
got the better of the ironical doctor in repartee, and that he was
taking his leave tongue-tied. In truth, he was so angry that he did not
trust himself to speak. He simply glared and departed.
"Poor fellow," she said, by way of explanation to Lyons, "I suppose his
emotion got the better of him, because he has loved her so long. That
was the Dr. Page who has been crazy for years to marry Pauline
Littleton. When he was young he married a woman of doubtful character,
who ran away from him. I used to think that Pauline was right in
refusing to sacrifice her life for his sake. But he has been very
constant, and I doubt if she has originality enough to keep her position
as president of Wetmore long.
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