Their
talk, after that he was now used to, was flat and foolish, and their
pert ease incensed him. He came away bruised and burning, and
feeling himself unfit to breathe the refined and gentle air to which
he returned in Mr. Corey's presence. Then he would vow in his heart
never to expose himself to such things again; but he could not tell
Statira that he despised the friends she was happy with; he could
only go with a reluctance it was not easy to hide, and atone by
greater tenderness for a manner that wounded her. One day toward the
end of August, when they were together at a suburban theatre,
Statira wandered off to a pond there was in the grounds with some
other girls, who had asked him to go and row them, and had called
him a bear for refusing, and told him to look out for Barnum. They
left him sitting alone with 'Manda Grier, at a table where they had
all been having ice-cream at his expense; and though it was no longer
any pleasure to be with her, it was better than to be with them, for
she was not a fool, at any rate. Statira turned round at a little
distance to mock them with a gesture and a laugh, and the laugh
ended in a cough, long and shattering, so that one of her companions
had to stop with her, and put her arm round her till she could
recover herself and go on.
It sent a cold thrill through Lemuel, and then he turned angry.
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