Van Berg at the table to-day, taken in connection with your action?
You said, 'congenial society for me, or none at all.' Whatever
Van's faults are, he is a perfect gentleman; and yet you treat him
as rudely and coldly as you can, and assert by your actions that
Sibley's society is by far the most congenial to you."
Ida's overstrained nerves gave way, and she said, irritably:
"You understood the cheerful questions of our appetizing table-talk
to-day better than you understand me; so please be still."
"Oh, pshaw, Ik," commenced Mrs. Mayhew, who now began to wake up
since the theme was quite within her sphere, "you are affecting
very Puritanical views of late. It does not seem so very long
since you and Sibley were good friends."
"It is within the memory of woman, if not of man," added Ida,
maliciously, "since you drank his brandy, and considerable of it,
too."
Stanton flushed angrily but controlled himself.
"He was never my friend--never more than an acquaintance," he
said emphatically, "and I never before knew him as well as I do
now. Moreover, I may as well say it plainly, I am through with
that style of men, forever. There is little prospect of my ever
becoming saint-like, but I shall, at least, cease to be vulgar in
my associations.
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