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CHAPTER VII

Van der Welcke and Marianne went side by side.

"How deliciously fresh it is now," she almost carolled. "The wind has gone down and the air is lovely; and look, how beautiful the sky is with those last black clouds . . . Oh, I think it so ripping, that everything's all right again between you and Papa! I did feel it so. You know how fond I am of both of you, Aunt Constance and you, and of Addie; and it was all so sad . . . Tell me, does Auntie still feel bitter about it? I expect she does . . . Ah, I understand quite well now . . . that she would have liked to come to our house . . . officially, let me say! But why not first have spoken to Mamma . . . or to me, who am so fond of you? Then we could have seen: we might have thought of something. As it was, Mamma was so startled by that unexpected visit . . . Poor Aunt Constance, she isn't happy! How sad that you and she aren't happier together! Oh, I could cry about it at times: it seems such a shame! . . . A man and woman married . . . and then . . . and then what I so often see! . . . I oughtn't to have said what I did before dinner, it was stupid of me; but I may speak now, mayn't I? . . . Oh, I sha'n't marry, I won't marry! . . . To be married like Otto and Frances,

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