“Where did the professional call come in?”
“Oh, that doesn’t take a second. He watches his patient while he talks! Oh, and he told two hospital stories, a story of his school life, and about being lost in the woods, and about a camp-meeting! He is from Mississippi. Your Mr. Towne couldn’t say so much in ten years.”
“He says that the disease in my lungs is not progressive, but that I should protect my health! I ought to spend every winter in the West Indies or in the south of Europe! South of Europe, indeed! On your father’s business! Now if I had married John Gesner I might have spent my winters in any part of the civilized world.”
“Would you have taken us?” asked Dinah.
“The future is veiled from us mercifully.”
Dinah laughed. “Mother, you forget about love.”
“Love!” exclaimed Mrs. Wadsworth scornfully, “I should like to know what love is.”
“Father knows,” said Dinah. “Have you read ‘Elizabeth,’ Tessa?”
“Yes.”
“I’d die before I’d act as she did, wouldn’t you? I’d die before I’d let any body know that I cared for him more than he cared for me, wouldn’t you?”