"You have a right to find fault with that," said Winthrop still laughing, "for certainly it is a quality with which you never provoked anybody."
Rufus seemed to be swallowing more provocation than he had expressed.
"What were you going to say of me, Rufus?" said the other seriously.
"Nothing —"
"If you meant to say that I have not the same reason to be disappointed that you have, you are quite right."
"I meant to say that; and I meant to say that you do not feel any disappointment as much as I do."
Winthrop did not attempt to mend this position. He only mended the fire.
"I wish you need not be disappointed!" the mother said sighing, looking at the fire with a very earnest face.
"My dear mother," said Winthrop cheerfully, "it is no use to wish that in this world."
"Yes it is — for there is a way to escape disappointments, — if you would take it."