"
"If I thought you were personal, Peter, I should object to the
mercantile adjective. 'Superfine,' indeed!"
"I am personal. I withdraw the obnoxious phrase, and substitute
transcendent. No, Fanny dear, I read Wade's experience in my own. I do
not feel very much concerned about him. He is big enough to take care of
himself. A man who is sincere, self-possessed, and steady does not get
into miseries with beautiful Amazons like our friend. He knows too much
to try to make his love run up hill; but let it once get started, rough
running gives it _vim_. Wade will love like a deluge, when he sees that
he may, and I'd advise obstacles to stand off."
"It was pretty, Peter, to see cold Mary Damer so gentle and almost
tender."
"I always have loved to see the first beginnings of what looks like
love, since I saw ours."
"Ours," she said,--"it seems like yesterday."
And then together they recalled that fair picture against its dark
ground of sorrow, and so went on refreshing the emotions of that time
until Fanny smiling said,--
"There must be something magical in skates, for here we are talking
sentimentally like a pair of young lovers."
"Health and love are cause and effect," says Peter, sententiously.
Meanwhile Wade had been fast skating into the good graces of his
companion. Perhaps the rap on his head had deranged him. He certainly
tossed himself about in a reckless and insane way.
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