Page:Life's little ironies (1894).pdf/127

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TO PLEASE HIS WIFE
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shy that I thought you didn’t want me to bother ’ee, and so I went to Joanna.”

Don’t say any more, Mr. Jolliffe, don’t !” said she, choking. “You are going to marry Joanna next month, and it is wrong to—to—”

“Oh, Emily, my darling !” he cried, and clasped her little figure in his arms before she was aware.

Joanna, behind the curtain, turned pale, tried to withdraw her ayes, but could not.

“It is only you I love as a man ought te love the woman he is going to marry; and I know this from what Joanna has said—that she will willingly let mo off! She wants to marry higher, I know, and only said ‘Yes’ to me out of kindness. A fine, tall girl like her isn’t the sort for a plain sailor's wife; you be the best suited for that.”

He kissed her and kissed her again, her flexible form quivering in the agitation of his embrace.

“If wonder-—are you sure—Joanna is going to break off with you? Oh, are you sure? Because—”

“I know she would not wish to make us miserable. She will release me.”

“Oh, I hope-—I hope she will! Don't stay any longer, Captain Jolliffe !”

He lingered, however, till a customer came for a penny stick of sealing-waz, and then he withdrew.

Green envy had overspread Joanna at the scene. She looked about for a way of escape. To get out without Emily’s knowledge of her visit was indispensable. She crept from the parlor into the passage, and thence to the front door of the house, where she let hereslf noiselessly into the street.

The sight of that caress had reversed all ber resolutions, She could not let Shadrach go. Reaching home, she burned the letter, and told her mother that if Captain Jolliffe called she was too unwell to see him.

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