They cannot keep away. They come to buy
and sell--pictures and books and luxuries and lands. They come to give
and take. They are building a bridge from shore to shore of their work,
and their thoughts, and their plannings, out of the lives and souls of
them. It will be a great bridge and great things will pass over it."
She kissed the faded cheek again. She wanted to sweep Rosy away from the
dreariness of "it." Lady Anstruthers looked at her with faintly smiling
eyes. She did not follow all this quite readily, but she felt pleased
and vaguely comforted.
"I know how they come here and marry," she said. "The new Duchess of
Downes is an American. She had a fortune of two million pounds."
"If she chooses to rebuild a great house and a great name," said Betty,
lifting her shoulders lightly, "why not--if it is an honest bargain? I
suppose it is part of the building of the bridge."
Little Lady Anstruthers, trying to pull up the sleeves of the gauzy
bodice slipping off her small, sharp bones, stared at her half in
wondering adoration, half in alarm.
"Betty--you--you are so handsome--and so clever and strange," she
fluttered. "Oh, Betty, stand up so that I can see how tall and handsome
you are!"
Betty did as she was told, and upon her feet she was a young woman of
long lines, and fine curves so inspiring to behold that Lady Anstruthers
clasped her hands together on her knees in an excited gesture.
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