Houghton once more without the
slightest intention, or even expectation, on her part, that she was
perplexed and troubled. What did it mean?
In matters purely personal, and related closely to our own interests, we
are prone to give almost a superstitious significance to events which come
about naturally enough. It was not at all strange that Houghton should
have been strongly and agreeably impressed by Ella from the first; and
that he should happen to call at the same hour that she did, would have
been regarded by her as a very ordinary coincidence, had not the case been
her own. Since it was her own, she was almost awed by the portentous
interview from which she had just escaped. The inexperienced girl found
her cherished ideas in respect to young Houghton completely at fault. She
had sighed that she could not meet him without restraint or embarrassment,
for, as she had assured herself, "It would be such fun." She had supposed
that she could laugh at him and with him indefinitely--that he would be a
source of infinite jest and amusement. He had banished all these illusions
in a few brief moments. How could she make sport of a man who had coupled
her name with that of his dead mother? His every glance, word, and tone
expressed sincere respect and admiration, and, she had to admit to
herself, something more. She was so sincere herself, so unsullied, so
lacking in the callousness often resulting from much contact with the
world, that it seemed to her that it would be a profanation henceforth to
regard him as the butt of even the innocent ridicule of which she was
capable.
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