He meant to go to church
in them, and in the afternoon he did not know just what he should
do. He had hoped that some chance might bring them together again,
and then he could see from the way Miss Dudley and 'Manda Grier
behaved, just what they thought. He had many minds about the matter
himself, and had gone from an extreme of self-abhorrence to one of
self-vindication, and between these he had halted at every gradation
of blame and exculpation. But perhaps what chiefly kept him away was
the uncertainty of his future; till he could give some shape to that
he had no courage to face the past. Sometimes he wished never to see
either of those girls again; but at other times he had a longing to
go and explain, to justify himself, or to give himself up to
justice.
The new clothes gave him more heart than he had yet had, but the
most he could bring himself to do was to walk towards Pleasant
Avenue the next Sunday afternoon, which Mrs. Harmon especially gave
him,--and to think about walking up and down before the house. It
ended in his walking up and down the block, first on one side of the
street and then on the other. He knew the girls' window; Miss Dudley
had shown him it was the middle window of the top story when they
were looking out of it, and he glanced up at it. Then he hurried
away, but he could not leave the street without stopping at the
corner, to cast a last look back at the house.
Pages:
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214