His fingers wrung
each other fiercely for a moment. He looked away at the trees; he turned
to Josephine Thorn; and then once more he gazed at the dark foliage,
motionless in the hot air of the summer's afternoon.
"Yes," he said, "I think there are things much better than those in the
world." But his voice shook strangely, and there was no true ring in it.
Joe sighed again.
In the distance she could see Ronald and Sybil, as they stood under the
porch shaking hands with the departing guests. She looked at them, so
radiant and beautiful with the fulfilled joy of a perfect love, and she
looked at the stern, strong man by her side, whose commanding face bore
already the lines of care and trouble, and who, he said, had found
something better than the happiness of yonder bride and bridegroom.
She sighed, and she said in her woman's heart that they were right, and
that John Harrington was wrong.
"Come," she said, rising, and her words had a bitter tone, "let us go in;
it is late." John did not move.
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