Impetuous as Miss Hargrove was at times, she had
too fine a nature to be careless of the rights and feelings of others.
Moreover, she felt that Webb had been her ally, whether consciously or
not, and he should have his chance with all the help she could give him,
but she was wise enough to know that obtrusion and premature aid are
often disastrous.
The decision, after this portentous conference, was: "Mr. Bart must seek
me, and seek very zealously. I know you well enough Amy, to be sure that
you will give him no hints. It's bad enough to love a man before I've
been asked to do so. What an utterly perverse and unmanageable thing
one's heart is! I shall do no angling, however, nor shall I permit any."
"You may stand up straight, Gertrude," said Amy, laughing, "but don't
lean over backward."
Burt entertained half a dozen wild and half-tragic projects before he
fell asleep late that night, but finally, in utter self-disgust, settled
down on the prosaic and not irrational one of helping through with the
fall work on the farm, and then of seeking some business or profession to
which he could give his whole mind. "As to ladies' society," he
concluded, savagely, "I'll shun it hereafter till I'm grown up."
Burt always attained a certain kind of peace and the power to sleep after
he had reached an irrevocable decision.
During the night the wind veered to the east, and a cold, dismal
rain-storm set in.
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