"
"Great goodness!
"Great goodness!
Kipling - Poems
I simply don't
understand what the feeling means. "
"Is that true, dear? "
"You've been very good to me, Dickie; and the only way I can pay you
back is by speaking the truth. I daren't tell a fib. I despise myself
quite enough as it is. "
"What in the world for? "
"Because--because I take everything that you give me and I give you
nothing in return. It's mean and selfish of me, and whenever I think of
it it worries me. "
"Understand once for all, then, that I can manage my own affairs, and if
I choose to do anything you aren't to blame. You haven't a single thing
to reproach yourself with, darling. "
"Yes, I have, and talking only makes it worse. "
"Then don't talk about it. "
"How can I help myself? If you find me alone for a minute you are always
talking about it; and when you aren't you look it. You don't know how I
despise myself sometimes.
"
"Great goodness! " said Dick, nearly jumping to his feet. "Speak the
truth now, Maisie, if you never speak it again! Do I--does this worrying
bore you? "
"No. It does not. "
"You'd tell me if it did? "
"I should let you know, I think. "
"Thank you. The other thing is fatal. But you must learn to forgive
a man when he's in love. He's always a nuisance. You must have known
that? "
Maisie did not consider the last question worth answering, and Dick was
forced to repeat it.
"There were other men, of course. They always worried just when I was in
the middle of my work, and wanted me to listen to them.
understand what the feeling means. "
"Is that true, dear? "
"You've been very good to me, Dickie; and the only way I can pay you
back is by speaking the truth. I daren't tell a fib. I despise myself
quite enough as it is. "
"What in the world for? "
"Because--because I take everything that you give me and I give you
nothing in return. It's mean and selfish of me, and whenever I think of
it it worries me. "
"Understand once for all, then, that I can manage my own affairs, and if
I choose to do anything you aren't to blame. You haven't a single thing
to reproach yourself with, darling. "
"Yes, I have, and talking only makes it worse. "
"Then don't talk about it. "
"How can I help myself? If you find me alone for a minute you are always
talking about it; and when you aren't you look it. You don't know how I
despise myself sometimes.
"
"Great goodness! " said Dick, nearly jumping to his feet. "Speak the
truth now, Maisie, if you never speak it again! Do I--does this worrying
bore you? "
"No. It does not. "
"You'd tell me if it did? "
"I should let you know, I think. "
"Thank you. The other thing is fatal. But you must learn to forgive
a man when he's in love. He's always a nuisance. You must have known
that? "
Maisie did not consider the last question worth answering, and Dick was
forced to repeat it.
"There were other men, of course. They always worried just when I was in
the middle of my work, and wanted me to listen to them.
