Now this year I propose to divide into topics,
and go by logical, rather than natural, sequence of events.
THE LOVERS.
Alfred came every day to see Julia, and Mrs. Dodd invariably left the
room at his knock.
At last Julia proposed to Alfred not to come to the house for the
present; but to accompany her on her rounds as district visitor. To see
and soothe the bitter calamities of the poor had done her own heart good
in its worst distress, and she desired to apply the same medicine to her
beloved, who needed it: that was one thing: and then another was, that
she found her own anger rising when her mother left the room at that
beloved knock: and to be angry with her poor widowed, mother was a sin.
"She is as unfortunate as I am happy," thought Julia; "I have got _mine_
back."
Alfred assented to this arrangement with rather an ill grace. He
misunderstood Julia, and thought she was sacrificing him to what he
called her mother's injustice. This indeed was the interpretation any
male would have been pretty sure to put on it. His soreness, however, did
not go very far; because she was so kind and good to him when they were
together.
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