I was younger, and even
more thoughtless than now, and I had a little money and I handed it over
for the 'Herald.' I wanted to run a paper myself, and to build up a power!
And then, though I only lived here the first few years of my life and all
the rest of it had been spent in the East, I was born in Indiana, and, in
a way, the thought of coming back to a life-work in my native State
appealed to me. I always had a dim sort of feeling that the people out in
these parts knew more--had more sense and were less artificial, I mean--
and were kinder, and tried less to be somebody else, than almost any other
people anywhere. And I believe it's so. It's dull, here in Carlow, of
course--that is, it used to be. The agent explained that I could make the
paper a daily at once, with an enormous circulation in the country. I was
very, very young. Then I came here and saw what I had got. Possibly it is
because I am sensitive that I never let Tom know. They expected me to
amount to something; but I don't believe his welcome would be less hearty
to a failure--he is a good heart."
"Failure!" she cried, and clapped her hands and laughed.
"I'm really not very tragic about it, though I must seem consumed with
self-pity," he returned, smiling. "It is only that I have dropped out of
the world while Tom is still in it."
"Dropped out of the world!'" she echoed, impatiently.
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