Wright left her, Helena stood staring after him, sobbing
under her breath. She was terrified, but almost instantly she began to
be angry....
That old man, creeping away along the road, had told her that he would
not betray her; but his knowledge was a menace, and his surprise that
she should have David, an insult! Of course, her way of living was
considered "wrong" by people who cannot understand such situations--
old-fashioned, narrow-minded people. But the idea of any harm coming
to David by it was ridiculous! As for Sam Wright, all that sort of
thing was impossible, because it was repugnant. No married woman,
"respectable," as such women call themselves, could have found the
boy's love-making more repugnant than she did. And certainly her
conduct in Old Chester was absolutely irreproachable: she went to
church fairly often; she gave liberally to all the good causes of the
village; she was kind to her servants, and courteous to these stupid
Old Chester people. And yet, simply because she had been forced by
Frederick's cruelty into a temporary unconventionality, this dingy,
grimy old man despised her! "He looked at me as if I were--I don't
know what!"
Anger swept the color up into her face, her hands clenched, and she
ground her heel down into the path as if she were grinding the
insolent smile from his cruel old face. Horrible old man! Dirty,
tremulous; with mumbling jaws chewing constantly; with untidy white
hairs pricking out from under his brown wig; with shaking, shrivelled
hands and blackened nails; this old man had fixed his melancholy eyes
upon her with an amused leer.
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