Why should a man be praised for living a
respectable life? That John had really turned a sort of moral somersault and
come up a different creature, she did not realize in the least, nor the
difficulties surmounted in such a feat; but she did give him credit secretly
for turning about face and behaving far more decently than she could ever have
believed possible. She had no conception of his mental torture at the time,
but if he kept on doing well, she privately intended to inform Susanna and at
least give her a chance of trying him again, if absence had diminished her
sense of injury. One thing that she did not know was that John was on the eve
of losing his partnership. When Jack had said that his father was not going
back to the store the next week, she thought it meant simply a vacation.
Divided hearts, broken vows, ruined lives she could bear the sight of these
with considerable philosophy, but a lost income was a very different, a very
tangible thing. She almost lost her breath when her brother knocked the ashes
from his meerschaum and curtly told her of the proposed change in his business
relations.
"I don't know what I shall do yet," he said, "whether I shall set up for
myself in a small way or take a position in another concern,--that is, if I
can get one--my stock of popularity seems to be pretty low just now in
Farnham.
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