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"
"And--well? Then he had a first love?" said Cecil, in a voice
schooled into quiet. "Was he different then? Was he as desperate
as poor Frank is now?"
"Frank is a very mild copy of him at that age. He overbore every
one, wrung consent from all, and did everything but overcome his
mother's calm hostility and self-assertion."
"Did that stop it? She died of course," said Cecil. "She could not
have left off loving him."
"She did not die, but her family were wearied out by the continual
objections to their overtures, and the supercilious way of treating
them. They thought it a struggle of influence, and that he was too
entirely dominated for a daughter-in-law to be happy with her. So
they broke it off."
"And she--" Cecil looked up with searching eyes.
"She had acutely felt the offence, the weakness, the dutifulness,
whatever you may choose to call it, and in the rebound she married."
"Who is she?" gasped Cecil.
"It is not fair to tell you," was the gentle answer, with a shade of
rebuke. "You need not look for her. She is not in the county.


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