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| title
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listlengths 1
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|---|---|---|---|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My poor little wounded bird,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is so pleasant to be here, and it rests me so. I wish I might never go away. May I stay here, Morris, as your housekeeper, instead of Mrs. Hull?--that is, if I am not his wife. The world might despise me, but you would know I was not to blame. I should go nowhere but to the farmhouse, to church, and baby's grave. Poor baby! I am glad God gave her to me, even if I am not Wilford's wife; and I am glad now that she died."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "My poor child, you have passed through some agitating scene. Are you able now to tell me all about it, and what you mean by another wife?"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Now tell me what brought you here without your husband's knowledge."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They were talking of what I ought never to have heard, and it seemed as if the walls were closing me in so that I could not move to let them know I was there. I said to myself, 'I shall go mad after this,' and I thought of you all coming to see me in the madhouse, your kind face, Morris, coming up distinctly before me, just as it would look at me if I were really crazed. But all this was swept away like a hurricane when I heard the rest, the part about Genevra, Wilford's other wife."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He can't have two wives living, and I tell you I knew the picture--Genevra is not dead. I have seen her; I have talked with her--Genevra is not dead."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Granted that she is not, Morris answered,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I do not believe in divorces. 'Whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder,'"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That is the Scripture I know, Morris replied,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But in Genevra's case the sin did not exist. She was as innocent as I am, and that must make a difference."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Katy, don't you love your husband, that you try so hard to prove he is not yours?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I do, oh, yes, I do. I never loved any one else. I would have died for him once. Maybe I would die for him now; but, Morris, I fear he is disappointed in me. Our tastes are not alike, and we made a great mistake, or Wilford did when he took me for his wife. I was better suited to most anybody else, and I have been so wicked since, forgetting all the good I ever knew, forgetting prayer save as I went through the form from old habit's sake, forgetting God, who has overtaken me at last and punished me so sorely that every nerve smarts with the stinging blows."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You must go back to New York; this is no place for you, she offered no remonstrance; but when he continued,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And you must go to-night; that is, you must take the early morning train, so as to reach the city before any one has had a chance to read the letter, she demurred at once."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She must see mother; she must see Helen; she must tell Helen who Genevra was. She wanted her to know it, but no one else. She must visit baby's grave; she could not go back without it."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not if it is right? Morris asked, and Katy began to waver when he told her how much better it would be for her family not to know of this visit to him, as it would trouble them. She could tell Wilford, if she liked, but he must not be permitted to find the letter, as he would if he returned while she was gone."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I will go with you. It is not safe for you to go alone,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Are you sick, Katy?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not sick, no; only so tired, so sleepy,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Some trouble with that high-headed husband of hers; I always mistrusted him,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A cup of tea and a slice of toast was all she would require,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Make her drink it if you ever expect to get her to New York,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You must drink it, Morris said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It will make you stronger for the ride. We are going very soon, you know--going to New York,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Let me rest now for a little while,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That is the doctor,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "If he does not come to-day, we shall telegraph for him, as his wife is very sick."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have not been to Father Cameron's. I had business somewhere else, but you must not tell. I am in trouble, Esther, or rather, I have been. I guess it's over now. You are a good girl, and I can trust you. There's a letter in that drawer, please bring it to me."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's to Silverton Mrs. Cameron went, though how she could get there and back so soon is a mystery to me, or why she went at all."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There is something in the wind,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are a doctor, Dr. Grant. Come, then, to Mrs. Cameron. She is taken out of her head, and talks so queer and raving."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Shall I send for Mrs. Cameron and another doctor, please?"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He was the doctor whom Jamie talked so much about, she said;"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mrs. Wilford was not well when her husband went away; but of course he thought nothing of it, neither did she--Esther--until to-day, when she came in from the street, looking very badly, and going directly to her bed, where she had been growing worse ever since."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, and Mrs. Cameron beat her foot thoughtfully."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wish I had called yesterday. I did speak of it, fearing she would be lonely."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I dare say she was, Esther replied, never changing color in the least, although somewhat afraid she was being driven to the wall."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She seemed downcast all the morning, but went about noon. I thought maybe she would call on you."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I wish she had,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Dr. Grant, of Silverton! I have the utmost confidence in his skill. Still, it may be well for Dr. Craig to see her. I think that is his ring."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Indeed, she's safer, he added,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Perhaps it is best she should not know of Katy's journey to Silverton,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It hurts, she said, turning her head from side to side;"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am lying on Genevra."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It's the baby she's talking about."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What is that? Mrs. Cameron asked, and Morris passed the case to her, saying:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A picture was under Katy's pillow."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She most have been rummaging, she thought, and then, as she remembered what Esther had said about her mistress appearing sick and unhappy when her husband left, she repaired to the parlor and summoning Esther to her presence, asked her again:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "When she first observed traces of indisposition in Mrs. Cameron."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When she came home from that dinner at your house. She was just as pale as death, and her teeth fairly chattered as I took off her things."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Dinner? What dinner? Mrs. Cameron asked, and Esther replied:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, the night Mr. Wilford went away or was to go. She changed her mind about meeting him at your house and said she meant to surprise him. But she came home before Mr. Cameron, looking like a ghost and saying she was sick. It's my opinion something she ate at dinner hurt her."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Very likely; yes. You can go now,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She must have been in the library and heard all we said, Mrs. Cameron thought, as she nervously twisted the fringe of her breakfast shawl."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I remember we talked of Genevra, and I remember, too, that we both heard a strange sound from some quarter, but thought it came from the kitchen. That was Katy. She was there all the time and let herself quietly out of the house. I wonder does Wilford know, and then there came over her an intense desire for Wilford to come home, a desire which was not lessened when she returned to Katy's room and heard her talking of Genevra and the grave at St. Mary's"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'm not to be hoodwinked any longer. It's Genevra Lambert I mean, Wilford's other wife; the one across the sea, whom you and he browbeat. She was innocent, too--as innocent as I, whom you both deceived."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They might find him, and they might not, Mark Ray said, when the message came down to the office."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They could try, at all events,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I should not myself like to run the risk of meeting a divorced wife at any time, he thought;"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Katy is at home,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Is Katy sick? was his first question, which Morris answered in the affirmative, holding him back as he was starting for her room, and saying to him:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Let me send your mother to you first. What passed between Wilford and his mother was never known exactly, but at the close of the interview Mrs. Cameron was very pale, while Wilford's face looked dark and anxious, as he said:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You think he understands it, then?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, in part. Of course he cannot make a very connected story out of her ravings; but that he believes you had a wife before Katy, I am sure, just as I am that the world will be none the wiser for his knowledge. I knew Dr. Grant before you did, and there are few men living whom I respect as much, and no one whom I would trust as soon."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "That was easy, inasmuch as he believed it an insane freak of Katy's to have no other physician than her cousin. It was quite natural, he said, adding that she was as safe with Dr. Grant as any one. So that is settled, and I was glad, for I could not have a stranger know of that affair. If I thought it would save her life to retain him, I should feel differently, of course."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, certainly,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why was it necessary to bring another here?"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You will go up now, Mrs. Cameron said to her son, when peace was fully restored, and a moment after Wilford stood in the dimly-lighted room, where Katy was talking of going to the hospitals, and of Marian Hazelton, and was only kept upon her pillow by the strong arm of Morris, who stood over her when Wilford entered, telling her to"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I have no husband,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I've been at the bottom of things, and Genevra is not in that grave at St. Mary's. Nobody is there; consequently, she is living, and you are not my husband. So if you please you can leave the house at once. Morris will do very well. He will settle the estate, and no bill shall be sent in for your board and lodging."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't be foolish, Katy. Don't you know me? I am Wilford, your husband."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That was, you mean, Katy rejoined, drawing her hand quickly away."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Go find your first love, where bullets fall like hail, and where there is pain, and blood, and carnage. Genevra is there."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What God hath joined together let not man put asunder,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A terrible shock, the nature of which I understand, but you have nothing to fear from me, Morris replied."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I accuse you to no man, but leave you to settle it with your conscience whether you did right to deceive her so long."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "God will not forgive you for the wrong you have done me."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "My mother, Mrs. Lennox."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Good-morning, madam."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Dr. Grant happened here very providentially, and I hope to keep him until the crisis is past, although he has just told me he must go back to-morrow,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Was you a widower when you married my daughter?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, madam, he replied,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You have other physicians here, he said to Wilford, who objected to his leaving."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Dr. Craig will do as well as I."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They were engaged, Esther said, adding that"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I shall be very lonely now that Mark is gone. He left me to-day for Washington."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, Helen! Miss Lennox, I am surprised! I had supposed--I was not aware--I did not think you would care, Mrs. Banker exclaimed, coming closer to Helen, who stammered out:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I beg you will excuse me, I cannot help it. I care for all our soldiers. It seems so terrible."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I care for all the soldiers,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Perhaps it is all a mistake, she thought, as she continued standing by Helen, whose tears did not cease,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We do not need you here, he said,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Take me back there, she said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Were there no Genevra, she said,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Do you think her dying? Wilford asked, and Morris replied:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Not yet; but the look about the mouth and nose is like the look which so often precedes death."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She is saved, thank God, Mr. Cameron, Katy is saved,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Morris Grant, you love Katy Cameron."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have loved her always."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You, a saint, confess to this?"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Should my being what you call a saint prevent my confessing what I did?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "No, not the confession, but the fact, Wilford answered, savagely."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "How do you reconcile your acknowledged love for Katy with the injunctions of the Bible whose doctrines you indorse?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A man cannot always control his feelings, but he can strive to overcome them and put the temptation aside. One does not sin in being tempted, but in listening to the temptation."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Then according to your own reasoning you have sinned, for you not only have teen tempted, but have yielded to the temptation,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I never thought to lay open to you a secret which, after myself, is, I believe, known to only one living being."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And that one--is--you will not tell me that is Katy?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, not Katy. She has no suspicion of the pain which, since I saw her made another's, has eaten into my heart, making me grow old so fast, and blighting my early manhood."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Most men would shrink from talking to a husband of the love they bore his wife, and an hour ago I should have shrunk from it, too, but you have forced me to it, and now you must listen while I tell you of my love for Katy. It began longer ago than she can remember--began when she was my baby sister, and I hushed her in my arms to sleep, kneeling by her cradle and watching her with a feeling I have never been able to define. She was in all my thoughts, her face upon the printed page of every book I studied, and her voice in every strain of music I ever heard. Then, when she grew older, I used to watch the frolicsome child by the hour, building castles even then of the future, when she would be a woman and I a man, with a man's right to win her. I know that she shielded me from many a snare into which young men are apt to fall, for when the temptation was greatest, and I was at its verge, a thought of her was sufficient to lead me back to virtue. I carried her in my heart across the sea, and said when I go back I will ask her to be mine. I went back, but at my first meeting with Katy after her return from Canandaigua she told me of you, and I knew then that hope for me was gone, praying for strength to bear my loss and hide my love from her. God grant that you nor she may never experience what I experienced on that day which made her your wife, and I saw her go away. It seemed almost as if God had forgotten me as the night after the bridal I sat alone at home, and met that dark hour of sorrow. In the midst of it Helen came, discovering my secret, and sympathizing with me until the pain at my heart grew less, and I could pray that God would grant me a feeling for Katy which should not be sinful. And He did at last, so I could think of her without a wish that she was mine. Times there were when the old love would burst forth with fearful power, and then I wished that I might die. These were my moments of temptation which I struggled to overcome. Sometimes a song, a strain of music, or a ray of moonlight on the floor would bring the past to me so vividly that I would stagger beneath the burden, feeling that it was greater than I could bear. But God was very merciful and sent me work which took up all my time, leaving little leisure for regrets, and driving me away from my own pain to soothe the pain of others. When Katy came to us last summer there was an hour of trial, when faith in God grew weak, and I was tempted to question the justice of His dealing with me. But that, too, passed, and in my love for your child I forgot the mother in part, looking upon her as a sister rather than the Katy I had loved so well. I would have given my life to have saved that child for her, even though it was a bar between us, a something which separated her from me more than the words she spoke at the altar. Though dead, that baby is still a bar, and Katy is not the same to me she was before that little life came into being. It is not wrong to love her as I do now. I feel no pang of conscience save when something unexpected carries me back to the old ground where I have fought so many battles."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What I have borne has told upon me terribly. My people say I work too hard, but they look only on the surface--they have never seen that inner chamber of my heart, where only you have been fully admitted. Even Helen knows not half what's there, but I felt that it was due to you, and so have told you all, asking that no shadow of censure shall fall on Katy, who would be greatly shocked to know what you know now."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You have done nobly, Dr. Grant, I believe in your religion now. Forgive me that I ever doubted it. I exonerate you from blame."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Have I been sick? she asked in a whisper, and Wilford, bending over her, replied:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, darling, very sick for nearly two whole weeks--ever since I left home that morning, you know."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, and Katy shivered a little."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yes, I know. But where is Morris? He was here the last I can remember."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She asks for you."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Have I been crazy? Have I talked much? she asked, and when Morris replied in the affirmative there came a startled look into her eye, as she said:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Of what or whom have I talked most?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Of Genevra, was the answer, and Katy continued:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Did I mention no one else?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You spoke of Miss Hazelton in connection with baby, but that was all."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When I tell you that neither my husband or daughters know it, you will understand that I am greatly in earnest in wishing it kept, she said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It was a most unfortunate affair, and though the divorce is, of course, to be lamented, it is better that she died. We never could have received her as our equal."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Was anything the matter, except that she was poor?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Well, no. She had a good education, I believe, and was very pretty; but it makes trouble always where there is a great inequality between a husband's family and that of his wife."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You don't know how I dread your going or how wretched I shall be without you. Everything which once made me happy has been removed or changed. Baby is dead, and Wilford--oh, Helen, I sometimes wish I had not heard of Genevra, for I am afraid it can never be with us as it was once; that is, I have not quite the same trust in him, and he seems so changed. Have you noticed how silent and moody he has grown?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "she continued,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Purified by Suffering."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "but never asking her forgiveness for all he had made her endure. He was too proud to do that now, and his tenderness always passed away when he remembered Morris Grant and Katy's remark to Helen:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I am afraid it can never be with us as it was once. I have not the same trust in him."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She had no right to complain of me to Helen,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Whom do you wish to see the most?"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wish to see them all,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Say, rather, you wish to see that doctor, who has loved you so long, and who but for me would have asked you to be his wife!"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What doctor, Wilford? Whom do you mean?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Dr. Grant, of course. Did you never suspect it?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Never,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I had it from his own lips; he sitting on one side of you and I upon the other. I so far forgot myself as to charge him with loving you, and he did not deny it, but confessed as pretty a piece of romance as I ever read, except that, according to his story, it was a one-sided affair, confined wholly to himself. You never dreamed of it, he said."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Never, no, never,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Poor Morris, how my thoughtlessness must have wounded him,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Oh, I don't know. I never thought of it before."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But you can think of it now,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A life at Linwood would be perfect rest, compared to this."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It might have been,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Poor Morris,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I'll drive down to the office for him this afternoon, she said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "That will surely please him; and to prove still further that I never dreamed of Morris' love, I'll tell him coming home how in the great sorrow about Genevra I went to him for counsel, and how he sent, or rather, brought me back."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The day is so fine I thought I would come in the carriage for you. It is early yet, and if you like, we can have a little drive. It might do you good. You look tired,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You need not have come for me, as I always prefer a stage; besides that, I can't go home just yet, I am not ready."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have not been here before since my illness, and I wanted to come once more, she said at last, apologetically, while Wilford, still looking over papers, replied:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "A sweet place to come to. I sometimes hate it myself. By the way, I have something to tell you, and his face began to brighten."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Mrs. Mills, from Yonkers, was in town to-day, and as she had not time to see you, she found me and insisted upon your keeping the promise you made last summer of spending some days with her. The Beverleys are there and the Lincolns--quite a nice party--so I ventured to say that you should go out to-morrow and I would come out Saturday afternoon to spend Sunday."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, Wilford, I can't,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You can't! Why not? Wilford asked, and Katy replied:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I've never been in so much company as I shall meet there since baby died, and then--did you forget that it was Lent?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You are getting very good to think a few days' visit in the country will harm you, Wilford replied;"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's mean in him to speak so hateful to her, he was thinking just as Wilford came in, appearing so very amiable and good-humored that the boy ventured to inquire for Mrs. Cameron."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "She looked so pale and sick, the other day, he said,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What's that? What did you say? Wilford asked quickly, and Tom, thinking he had not been understood, repeated his words, while in a voice which Tom scarcely knew, it was so low and husky, Wilford asked:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What night was Mrs. Cameron in the cars with Dr. Grant? When was it, and where?"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I did not mind much about them, Tom said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Are you sure?"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, for she bowed to me and smiled."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Where did they go?"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They went off in a carriage toward your house, and that night I heard she was sick, Tom said, going back to his book, while Wilford seized his hat and started up Broadway. It was not his intention when he left the office to question the servants with regard to his wife, for every feeling and principle of his nature shrank from such an act, but by the time his home could be reached it could scarcely be said that he was in his right mind, and meeting Phillips in the hall, he demanded of her"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Oh, yes; she stayed at my father's then. It was very proper she should,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Did Katy stay here a night while I was gone, the night but one after that dinner when she heard of Genevra, I mean?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Why, no, Mrs. Cameron replied, in some surprise."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Katy has not stayed here since last October, just after she came from Silverton, and you were in Detroit. Why do you ask? What is the matter? What do you fear?"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Dr. Grant was there, and Dr. Craig, she said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The former, as I understood from Esther, had just come to the city and called on Katy, finding her so ill that he sent for me immediately."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And you do not know that Katy was away from home at all?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Esther spoke of her looking very sick when she came in, from which I inferred she had been driving or shopping, but she was not here, sure."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, sir,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Where was your mistress the night before Dr. Grant came here, and she was so very sick?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I don't know, sir. I had the impression that she at your mother's. Wasn't she there?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is your business to answer questions, not to ask them. Tell me then the particulars of her going away, and what she said."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "You know more than you admit. Tell me then the truth. Who came home with Mrs. Cameron, and when?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Who hinted there was anything wrong?"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nobody hinted, Esther sobbed, with her face hidden in her apron;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "See that you stick to that whatever may occur, and, mind you, let there be no repeating this conversation in the kitchen or elsewhere,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Has Mrs. Wilford Cameron been in Silverton since last September? W. CAMERON."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A letter for me! Uncle Ephraim said, when the message was put into his hands."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Who writ it?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I think it wants an answer,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "May be it does. I'll look again,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What does it mean? he asked, but the boy volunteered no ideas, and the simple-hearted deacon asked next:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What shall I tell him?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why, tell him whether she has been here or not since last September. Write on the envelope what you want sent, so I can take it back; and come, hurry up your cakes, I can't wait all day,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Not to my knowledge. To this he appended:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Yours, with regret, Ephraim Barlow,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I wonder what he sent me that word for? he kept repeating to himself."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "We had a letter from Katy yesterday, and there can't be nothing wrong. I won't tell the folks yet a while anyway till I see what comes of it, Lucy is so fidgety."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She has not been to Silverton, Wilford said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The case then is very clear."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I shall do it, he said, and his lips were pressed firmly together, as before his lonely fire he sat that chill March night, revolving the past and then turning to the future opening so darkly before him, and making him shudder as he thought of what it might bring."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I will spare Katy as much as possible, he said,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I am expected to go out there to-morrow night with Beverley and Lincoln, whose wives are also at Mrs. Mills'; quite a gay party we shall make,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What ails you, Wilford? his mother asked, but he answered pettishly:"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nothing, so pray don't look at me so curiously as if I was hiding some terrible secret."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Your deceived and disappointed husband."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, he answered, and then as he pushed back his chair, he said:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I shall not be home again to-day, as Mrs. Cameron expects me to spend Sunday at Yonkers."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He went to Yonkers, Saturday. I have not seen him since."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Where's Wilford?"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wilford is not dead, he said, when at last she was in the carriage."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is worse than that, I fear. We have traced him to the Philadelphia train, which he took on Saturday. His manner all that day and the previous one was very strange, while from some words he dropped my wife is led to suppose there was trouble between you two. Was there?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "No, oh, no; he never was kinder to me than when we parted last Friday morning at Mrs. Mills'. There is some mistake. He would not leave me, though he has not been quite the same since--"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Go on now. Wilford has not been the same since when?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Since baby died. I think he blamed me as the cause of its death."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Don't babies die every day?"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And then it was worse after I found out about Genevra, his first wife."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Genevra! Genevra, Wilford's first wife! Thunder and lightning! what are you talking about?"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's all accounted for now, he said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "and pausing in his walk, Mr. Cameron came close to his daughter-in-law, who was lying with her face upon the sofa."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Katy, be glad your baby died. Had it lived it might have proved a curse just as mine have done--not all, for Bell, though fiery as a pepper-pod, has some heart, some sense--and there was Jack, my oldest boy, a little fast, it's true; but when he died over the sea, I forgave all that, forgetting the chair he broke over a tutor's head, and the scrapes for which I paid as high as a thousand at one time. He sowed his wild oats, and died before he could reap them, died a good man, I believe, and went to heaven. Juno you know, and you can judge whether she is such as would delight a parent's heart; while Wilford, my only boy, to deceive me so; though I knew he was a fool in some things, I did trust Wilford."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "And he was cross because you found him out. Was there no other reason?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There was--but please don't ask me now. I can't tell, only I was not to blame. Believe me, father, I was not to blame."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'll swear to that, was the reply, as Father Cameron commenced his walking again."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He may have left some word, some line, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Suppose you look. It would probably be upstairs."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Deserted!"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Why did you say you went to him--that is, what was the special reason?"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I never told Wilford, Katy said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I felt as if I would rather he should not know it yet. Perhaps I was wrong, but if so, I have been terribly punished."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wilford would come back if he knew just how it was, the father said,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "he added, as a sharp, rapid ring echoed through the house and was answered by Esther."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It's my wife, he continued, as he caught the sound of her voice asking if Mrs. Cameron had returned."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You stay here while I meet her first alone. I'll give it to her for cheating me so long and raising thunder generally!"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And who think you the woman is--this Genevra, Wilford's and your divorced wife? You were too proud to acknowledge an apothecary's daughter! See if you like better a dressmaker, a nurse to Katy's baby, Marian Hazelton!"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I know what is in your mind, he said."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "You would like to have all the blame rest on Katy; but, madam, hear me--just so sure as through your means one breath of suspicion falls on her. I'll _bla at_ out the whole story of Genevra. Then see who is censured. On the other hand, if you hold your tongue, and make Juno hold hers, and stick to Katy through thick and thin, acting as if you would like to swallow her whole, I'll say nothing of this Genevra. Is it a bargain?"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Yes, came faintly from the sofa cushions, where Mrs. Cameron had buried her face, sobbing in a confused, frightened way, and after a moment finding voice to say:"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "What will you do with Phillips and Esther? He must have questioned them."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The deuce he did! I'll see to that I'll throttle them if they venture to speak!"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hang the cousin, and you, too, if you do! Mr. Cameron replied, and giving them some very strong advice, couched in very strong language, he dismissed the servants to the kitchen, satisfied that so far Katy was safe."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "But who is the villain who first informed? If I had him by the neck!"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Speak of angels and you hear the rustle of their wings,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "She can't see you, but I'll take the message. Is it about my son?"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It wasn't much, Tom began."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I only wanted to tell her maybe I was to blame for repeating what I saw."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "What did you see?"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have heard the whole from husband; it was a misunderstanding, that is all. Wilford was wrong to deceive you about Genevra. I was wrong to let him; but we will have no more concealments. You think she is living still--that she is Marian Hazelton?"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Very probable, but all tacitly allowing the understanding to prevail that insanity had made Wilford Cameron a voluntary wanderer from home. They could not believe in domestic troubles when they saw how his family clung to and defended Katy from the least approach of censure, Juno taking up her abode with her"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I have disgraced you all, he wrote,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I will write and tell him all the truth, and on his answer will depend my future course."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "and telling him to throw up his shoulder straps, which"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wilford never loved me. It was a mere fancy, a great mistake, and I cannot stay in his home, knowing that I am not trusted and respected as a wife should be. I will go to Silverton. There is room for me there. I shall write to Helen to-day."
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "He had feet and legs, and common sense, and he guessed he could find his way without 'em. 'Bleeged to you, gentlemen, but I don't need you,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This is it,"
}
]
|
15607 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I won't pull that nub, he said, glancing at the silver knob."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I'll go down to the kitchen door, as like enough they've company."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sis, and asked if"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Miss Cameron was to hum."
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A man in the kitchen asking for me!"
}
]
|
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