This was when I was twelve, and it was on account of this reckless
escapade that I was sent west and kept so long from home and all
my flatterers. My guardian meant well by this, but in saving me
from one pitfall he plunged me into another. I grew up without
Cora and also without any idea of the requirements of my position
or what I might anticipate from the world when the time came for me
to enter it. I knew that I had money; so did those about me; but I
had little or no idea of the amount, nor what that money would do
for me when I returned to Washington. So, in an evil day, and when
I was just eighteen, I fell in love, or thought I did, with a man
- (Oh, Francis, imagine it, now that I have seen you!) - of
sufficient attraction to satisfy one whose prospects were limited
to a contracted existence in some small town, but no more fitted
to content me after seeing Washington life than if he had been a
common farm hand or the most ordinary of clerks in a country store.
But I was young, ignorant and self-willed, and thought because my
cheek burned under his look that he was the man of men, and suited
to be my husband. That is, if I thought at all, which is not likely;
for I was in a feverish whirl, and just followed the impulse of the
moment, which was to be with him whenever I could without attracting
the teacher's attention.
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