The Yellow Book

lgiers with his wife and daughter. The doctor was a great favourite with them; he decided to sell his house in London, and join the party in their trave

for his departure drew close, Janet said something about her arrangements which raised a long discussion. Dr. Worgan expressed great astonishment at her resolution, and declared that she had not been op

; he had been reproaching her, and arguing for some time. Janet's tone vexed him. She was calm, disinclined to argue, b

independent. You say you want to get work as a governes

t me do anyt

I'm not a tyrant; but that's no reason why you sho

them gain anything from the conversation, and yet her father seemed to delight in prolonging it. She did not wish to defend her cours

Your father hasn't treated you well, he only lo

you know i

verness? Why, she would willingly be a factory girl, working her life out for a few shillings a week, if only she could be left alone to be straightforward. The picture of th

tions and friends will

of Gertrude; they will only shake their heads at their daughters and say, 'There

be amusing were not su

father is well off enough to give her enough to

ith it. If I were dependent, I sho

hat's not honesty, but

se she would show too plainly that she saw he was in the wrong; but she said nothing, and he went on: And what will people say at the idea of your bei

s a snob. If he had left her alone, she would have been satisfied with t

harm in being a governess, and I'm quite will

rst words she spo

y your concern: what will your

and so has no right to dictate to other people about their affairs; i

sister is too sweet and modest

his one word, and yet she knew that it

h your own people, and I don't know what you can teach. Perhaps you will repro

ic is not much, I know; but I th

wrong in not encouraging you to

n of reproaching you for an

t have cried, she was being fatigued into the flippa

rior way, Dr. Worgan said, walking up the

uld put out the light in the hall. Janet looked questioningly at her f

in a lower tone as she reappeared, we shall want break

er father seemed vexed at the

resent the way in which you look on my advice as if

*

ade himself that he did love her. If he had just let things take their natural course and made no objections against his better judgment, she would not have criticised him; she had never felt aggrieved at his preference for Gertrude: it so happened that she was not sympathetic to him, and they both knew it. Over and over again as she lay in bed, she argued out all these points with herself. If he h

of hers irritated him: if only she could have not been herself, he might have been

nnecessary talking are manly qualities.

nd in so many words? I could face difficulties quite well without being forced

she was not aiming very high? She was oppressed by the horrible fear of becoming old-maidish and narrow. Perhaps she would ch

e could not think of any great pleasures which she had longed for and claimed. Gerty had never hidden her

jection so far-reaching that its existence seemed to her more real than her own; it must have existed in the world before she was born, it must have been since the beginning. The smaller clouds which had da

ctual wrongs perhaps. In the darkness of her heaven there came a little patch of blue sky, the hopefulness which was always th