"
The truth was that I was simply smiling over some very pretty
thoughts that had come to me about the roses which were climbing
over Mary Gillespie's sill. I meant to inscribe them in the
little blank book when I went home. Georgie's speech brought me
back to harsh realities with a jolt. It hurt me, as such
speeches always did.
"Didn't you ever have a beau, Miss Holmes?" said Wilhelmina
laughingly.
Just as it happened, a silence had fallen over the room for a
moment, and everybody in it heard Wilhelmina's question.
I really do not know what got into me and possessed me. I have
never been able to account for what I said and did, because I am
naturally a truthful person and hate all deceit. It seemed to me
that I simply could not say "No" to Wilhelmina before that whole
roomful of women. It was TOO humiliating. I suppose all the
prickles and stings and slurs I had endured for fifteen years on
account of never having had a lover had what the new doctor calls
"a cumulative effect" and came to a head then and there.
"Yes, I had one once, my dear," I said calmly.
For once in my life I made a sensation. Every woman in that room
stopped sewing and stared at me. Most of them, I saw, didn't
believe me, but Wilhelmina did. Her pretty face lighted up with
interest.
"Oh, won't you tell us about him, Miss Holmes?" she coaxed, "and
why didn't you marry him?"
"That is right, Miss Mercer," said Josephine Cameron, with a
nasty little laugh.
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