Page:Watts Mumford--Whitewash.djvu/145

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WHITEWASH

world. You will marry—ah! yes, I have even dwelt on that, and it must be with one who will appreciate you and surround your beautiful body with the luxuries it deserves; who will supply the wants of your wonderful mind with the best that literature, art, and social intercourse can offer; who will give you the opportunity to develop into the wonderful woman you will be—for you are yet only a promise of what I hope for you."

He paused and gazed on her white profile, softened in the dusk till it toned into the dark background like some delicately painted miniature. This wholesale burning of incense at her shrine was as meat and drink to Philippa. From any man it would have been welcome; but coming from Valdeck it was food celestial. Moreover, a sense of relief filled her. She would not be obliged to refuse him; he was advancing from his standpoint the arguments she might have been forced gently to insinuate into his mind from hers. All she had to do now was play her game, a beautiful, heart-broken game. He need not know or guess her engagement to Morton

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