"She wears it as she would wear it if a brother had given it to her. They were brother and sister."
Hollis stood with his eyes upon the floor. Afterward Mrs. West told Miss Prudence that when it came to that, she pitied him with all her heart, "he shook all over and looked as if he would faint."
"Mrs. West!" he lifted his eyes and spoke in his usual clear, manly voice, "I have never thought of marrying any one beside Marjorie. I gave that up when mother wrote me that she cared for Morris. I have never sought any one since. I have been waiting—if she loved Morris, she could not love me. I have been giving her time to think of me if she wanted to—"
"I'd like to know how. You haven't given her the first sign."
"She does not know me; she is shy with me. I do not know her; we do not feel at home with each other."
"How are you going to get to feel at home with each other five hundred miles apart?" inquired the practical mother.
"It will take time."
"Time! I should think it would." Mrs. West pushed a stick of wood into the stove with some energy.
"But if you think it is because—"
"I do think so."