Rowland had been living for the past month in such
intolerable expectancy of disaster that now that the ice was broken, and
the fatal plunge taken, his foremost feeling was almost elation; but
in a moment his orderly instincts and his natural love of superficial
smoothness overtook it.
"I really don't see, Roderick," he said, "the profit of your talking in
just this way at just this time. Don't you see how you are making your
mother suffer?"
"Do I enjoy it myself?" cried Roderick. "Is the suffering all on your
side and theirs? Do I look as if I were happy, and were stirring you
up with a stick for my amusement? Here we all are in the same boat; we
might as well understand each other! These women must know that I 'm not
to be counted on. That sounds remarkably cool, no doubt, and I certainly
don't deny your right to be utterly disgusted with me."
"Will you keep what you have got to say till another time," said Mary,
"and let me hear it alone?"
"Oh, I 'll let you hear it as often as you please; but what 's the use
of keeping it? I 'm in the humor; it won't keep! It 's a very simple
matter.
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