But such was the case and Mrs. Pryor at least lived
to repent it. She had a hard life of it with Mr. Pryor, and she thought
it was a punishment on her for running away. So she made Miranda promise
she would never, for any reason whatever, do it.
"Of course, you cannot urge a girl to break a promise made to a dying
mother, so I did not see what Miranda could do unless she got Joe to
come to the house when her father was away and marry her there. But
Miranda said that couldn't be managed. Her father seemed to suspect she
might be up to something of the sort and he never went away for long at
a time, and, of course, Joe couldn't get leave of absence at an hour's
notice.
"'No, I shall just have to let Joe go, and he will be killed--I know he
will be killed--and my heart will break,' said Miranda, her tears
running down and copiously bedewing the vermin shirts!
"I am not writing like this for lack of any real sympathy with poor
Miranda. I've just got into the habit of giving things a comical twist
if I can, when I'm writing to Jem and Walter and Ken, to make them
laugh. I really felt sorry for Miranda who is as much in love with Joe
as a china-blue girl can be with anyone and who is dreadfully ashamed of
her father's pro-German sentiments. I think she understood that I did,
for she said she had wanted to tell me all about her worries because I
had grown so sympathetic this past year.
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