"Indeed, Katherine, you are anything but that. You couldn't do a mean
or ungenerous action if you tried your best."
"You think, Dorothy, I could reform?" she asked, breathlessly, leaning
forward.
"Reform? You don't need to reform. You are perfectly delightful as you
are, and I know no man who is worthy of you. That's a woman's opinion;
one who knows you well, and there is nothing dishonest about the
opinion, either, in spite of your tirade against our sex."
"Dorothy, three days ago, be the same more or less, I received a
letter from John Lamont."
"Yes, I saw it on the table, and surmised it was from him."
"Did you? You were quite right. The reading of that letter has
revolutionized my character. I am a changed woman, Dorothy, and
thoroughly ashamed of myself. When I remember how I have deluded that
poor, credulous young man, in making him believe I understood even the
fringe of what he spoke about, it fills me with grief at my perfidy,
but I am determined to amend my ways if hard study will do it, and
when next I see him I shall talk to him worthily like a female Thomas
A. Edison."
Again Dorothy laughed.
"Now, that's heartless of you, Dorothy. Don't you see I'm in deadly
earnest? Must my former frivolity dog my steps through life? When I
call to mind that I made fun to you of his serious purpose in life,
the thought makes me cringe and despise myself."
"Nonsense, Kate, don't go to the other extreme.
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