What an accursed chaotic old
world it is anyway! How grateful she is because I merely treat
her father politely! It would be impossible to do anything else,
now that he is himself again, and yet, by this simple, easy method,
I have won a friendlier regard than I could by any other means.
Like an idiot, I once thought she would have to withdraw from her
father to develop her new and beautiful life. If even in faintest
suggestion I had revealed that thought to her, I don't believe
she would have spoken to me again; and I foresee that I shall have
to be exceedingly polite to Mrs. Mayhew also, for my Undine is
developing a conscience that might become a man's implacable enemy.
But what am I thinking about! If I do not intend to see much of
the daughter, I shall not waste any time on the mother. I wonder
if Miss Mayhew meant anything by that odd little ballad last evening.
Could she have intended to remind me of blue-eyed Jennie Burton?
No, for she was singing it by herself, when she did not know I was
listening. The idiotic brook! If I had given my whole heart to
the effort I might have won Jennie Burton by this time. Ida Mayhew
was right; no woman that I wish to win will show a lover any favor
till he cannot help stopping and staying, too.
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