But he
soon passed under the spell of Jennie Burton's genial talk, which
seemingly glowed with the sunshine that had enveloped her during
her quest of the roses, and the poor girl, who was fairly quivering
with pain because of his significant act and words on the piazza,
was forgotten.
She knew she was forgotten. The hum of voices, the cheerful clatter
from the lighted supper-room, came up to her darkening apartment,
and only increased her sense of loneliness and isolation. Her quick
ear caught Van Berg's mellow laugh, evoked by one of Miss Burton's
sallies.
It is a dreary sensation to find one's self wholly forgotten by mere
acquaintances; but to find that we have no place in the thoughts
of those we love, seems in a certain sense like being annihilated.
But for poor Ida was reserved a deeper suffering still, since she
believed that the man she loved did not dismiss her from his mind
indifferently, but rather with aversion and disgust.
She felt her isolation terribly. To whom could she turn in
her trouble? The thought of her father was both a reproach and a
humiliation. He was drifting hopelessly, and almost unresistingly,
towards final wreck, and, so far from seeking to restrain, she
had added to the evil impetus.
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