She smiled like one who saw a happy vision, and an eerie
expression stole into her face. "I didn't want him to wake," she
continued. "I asked God not to let him wake. If he'd waked--oh, I'd have
been ashamed enough till the day I died in one way! Still he'd have
understood, and he'd have thought no harm. But it wouldn't have been fair
to him--and there's his wife in there," she added, breaking off into a
different tone. "They're a long way above us--up among the peaks, and
we're at the foot of the foothills, mother; but he never made us feel
that, did he? The difference between him and most of the men I've ever
seen! The difference!"
"There's the Young Doctor," said her mother reproachfully.
"He-him! He's by himself, with something of every sort in him from the
top to the bottom. There's been a ditcher in his family, and there may
have been a duke. But Shiel Crozier--Shiel"--she flushed as she said the
name like that, but a little touch of defiance came into her face too--
"he is all of one kind. He's not a blend. And he's married to her in
there!"
"You needn't speak in that tone about her. She's as fine as can be."
"She's as fine as a bee," retorted Kitty. Again she laughed that almost
mirthless laugh for which her mother had called her to account a moment
before. "You asked me a while ago what I was laughing at, mother," she
continued.
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