blue eyes. She had enormous capacity for being hurt. Strangely enough, there was something in her that drove those she loved to say exactly the thing that would hurt her most. It had always been so with her husband, and now it was so with her children.
A misplaced fortitude always led her to hide the fact that she was hurt.
She said now with false gayety, "Well, my dear, I hope some day you will find someone who loves you even better than I do, then."
"I'm sure I hope so," said Dolly, turning the page.
Her manner suggested that if she could not do that much her life would indeed be a failure.
Mrs. Conway stepped out on the piazza. That was the way--you gave up your life to making your children happy, to shielding them from grief and anxiety, and then they blamed you and hurt you horribly for something that was not at all your fault. She felt a moment of resentment toward her brother. Why had Anthony insisted on this silly plan? She had been too considerate of Anthony's feelings; she ought to have refused to have a governess at all. It was much wiser in this world to be stern and cruel. She decided to be stern and to begin with Miss Exeter, who entered the sitting room at this moment. She was wearing a plain cream-colored dress out of which her lovely head—all brown and rose color and gold--seemed strangely bright colored.