Since the first break with her,
there had never been peace between them, and perhaps not kindness
for long before that. Whether or not she felt responsible for having
promoted Statira's affair with him, and therefore bound to guard her
to the utmost from suffering by it, she seemed always to be on the
alert to seize any advantage against him. Sometimes Statira accused
her of trying to act so hatefully to him that he would never come
any more; she wildly blamed her; but the faithful creature was none
the less constant and vigilant on that account. She took patiently
the unjust reproaches which Statira heaped upon her like a wayward
child, and remitted nothing of her suspicion or enmity towards
Lemuel. Once, when she had been very bitter with him, so bitter that
it had ended in an open quarrel between them, Statira sided with him
against her, and when 'Manda Grier flounced out of the room she
offered him, if he wished, to break with her, and never to speak to
her again, or have anything more to do with such a person. But at
this his anger somehow fell; and he said no, she must not think of
such a thing; that 'Manda Grier had been her friend long before he
was, and that, whatever she said to him, she was always good and
true to her. Then Statira fell upon his neck and cried, and praised
him, and said he was a million times more to her than 'Manda Grier,
but she would do whatever he said; and he went away sick at heart.
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