"Make Jack take her to the theatre once a week. She has promised me that she will go for a walk every day with Sally."
"Sally says she is convinced Harriet is a Roman empress reborn, and may astonish Washington at any moment," said Mrs. Madison, anxiously. "Do you believe in reincarnation?"
"I don't believe or disbelieve anything I don't understand. We none of us can even guess what is latent in Harriet—for the matter of that I don't know what is latent in myself. I can only suspect. I don't think Harriet will ever go very deep into herself; she has not imagination enough. If circumstances are not too unfavourable, she may slip through life happy and respected, in spite of her tragic appearance: she is so slothful by nature, so much more susceptible to good influences than to bad. All of us possess every good and bad instinct in the whole book of human nature, but few of us have imagination enough to find it out. And the less we know of ourselves the better."
"Betty, you certainly do need a change. You looked tragic yourself as you said that; and if you became tragic it would mean something. I'm afraid your conscience is tormenting you about Mr. Burleigh, and perhaps I did not do right in asking him to come to the Adirondacks; but probably he would have come to the hotel, anyhow; and if I did have to lose you—"
"You'll never get rid of me." And she went to her room to consult with
Leontine.
The night before she left Harriet came into her room and said timidly,—
"Betty, I sometimes wonder if you have told Mr. Emory the truth about myself—"
"Certainly not. Why should I tell Mr. Emory—or anyone else?"
"Well, he is so kind to me and we have become such friends, I thought perhaps you would think he ought to know."
"That is pure nonsense. Do you suppose I tell my friends everything I know? No friend is so close as to demand to know more than you choose to tell him."