she added, " how that's to be taken into account
that everyone else has gone. When I was ten years
old there were, with my father and my mother, six
of us. I'm all that's left. But they died," she
went on, to be fair all round, " of different things.
Still, there it is. And, as I told you before, I'm
American. Not that I mean that makes me worse.
However, you ll probably know what it makes
me."

"Yes," he discreetly indulged her; " I know per
fectly what it makes you. It makes you, to begin
with, a capital case??

She sighed, though gratefully, as if again before
the social scene. " Ah, there you are!"

"Oh, no; there we aren't at all. There I am only
but as much as you like. I ve no end of American
friends: there they are, if you please, and it's a fact
that you couldn't very well be in a better place than
in their company. It puts you with plenty of others
and that isn't pure solitude." Then he pursued:
"I'm sure you ve an excellent spirit; but don't try
to bear more things than you need." Which after
an instant he further explained. " Hard things have
come to you in youth, but you mustn't think life will
be for you all hard things. You ve the right to be
happy. You must make up your mind to it. You
must accept any form in which happiness may
come."

"Oh, I ll accept any whatever! " she almost gaily
returned. " And it seems to me, for that matter,

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p264 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p265w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p266

v?