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Manners, J. Hartley, 1870-1928

"Peg O' My Heart"

Nothing would ever be
quite the same again. She had gone through the leavening process of
emotional life and had come out of it with her courage still intact,
her honesty unimpaired, but somehow with her FAITH abruptly shaken.
She had believed and trusted, and she had been--she thought--
entirely mistaken, and it hurt her deeply.
Exactly why Peg should have arrived at such a condition--bordering
as it was on cynicism--was in one sense inexplicable, yet from
another point of view easily understood. That Jerry had not told her
all about himself when they first met, as she did about herself to
him, did not necessarily imply deceit on his part. Had she asked any
member or servant in the Chichester family who and what "Jerry" was
they would readily have told her. But that was contrary to Peg's
nature. If she liked anyone, she never asked questions about them.
It suggested a doubt, and doubt to Peg meant disloyalty in
friendship and affection. Everyone had referred to this young
gentleman as "Jerry." He even introduced himself by that unromantic
and undignified name. No one seemed to treat him with any particular
deference, nor did anything in his manner seem to demand it. She had
imagined that anyone with a title should not only be proud of it,
but would naturally hasten to let everyone they met become
immediately aware whom they were addressing.


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