Dolan's
philosophy.
"Whin he smells the biscuit I mane to make for breakfast, he'll
get glad again," she said, and he did.
But first he went home, and tried to learn where he stood. WAS HE
TRULY RESPONSIBLE FOR JIMMY'S DEATH? Yes. If he had acted like a
man, he could have saved Jimmy. He was responsible. Did he want
to marry Mary? Did he? Dannie reached empty arms to empty space,
and groaned aloud. Would she marry him? Well, now, would she?
After years of neglect and sorrow, Dannie knew that Mary had
learned to prefer him to Jimmy. But almost any man would have
been preferable to a woman, to Jimmy. Jimmy was distinctly a
man's man. A jolly good fellow, but he would not deny himself
anything, no matter what it cost his wife, and he had been very
hard to live with. Dannie admitted that. So Mary had come to
prefer him to Jimmy, that was sure; but it was not a question
between him and Jimmy, now. It was between him, and any
marriageable man that Mary might fancy.
He had grown old, and gray, and wrinkled, though he was under
forty. Mary had grown round, and young, and he had never seen her
looking so beautiful. Surely she would want a man now as young,
and as fresh as herself; and she might want to live in town after
a while, if she grew tired of the country.
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