The Bostonians, Vol. II | Page 5

was the germ of disorder

in this invidious distinction which Mr. Ransom had suddenly made
between Olive Chancellor, who was related to him by blood, and
herself, who had never been related to him in any way whatever. She
knew Olive by this time well enough to wish not to reveal it to her, and
yet it would be something quite new for her to undertake to conceal
such an incident as her having spent an hour with Mr. Ransom during a
flying visit he had made to Boston. She had spent hours with other
gentlemen, whom Olive didn't see; but that was different, because her
friend knew about her doing it and didn't care, in regard to the
persons--didn't care, that is, as she would care in this case. It was vivid
to Verena's mind that now Olive would care. She had talked about Mr.
Burrage, and Mr. Pardon, and even about some gentlemen in Europe,
and she had not (after the first few days, a year and a half before) talked
about Mr. Ransom.
Nevertheless there were reasons, clear to Verena's view, for wishing
either that he would go and see Olive or would keep away from her;
and the responsibility of treating the fact that he had not so kept away
as a secret seemed the greater, perhaps, in the light of this other fact,
that so far as simply seeing Mr. Ransom went--why, she quite liked it.
She had remembered him perfectly after their two former meetings,
superficial as their contact then had been; she had thought of him at
moments and wondered whether she should like him if she were to
know him better. Now, at the end of twenty minutes, she did know him
better, and found that he had rather a curious, but still a pleasant way.
There he was, at any rate, and she didn't wish his call to be spoiled by
any uncomfortable implication of consequences. So she glanced off, at
the touch of Mrs. Luna's name; it seemed to afford relief. "Oh yes, Mrs.
Luna--isn't she fascinating?"
Ransom hesitated a little. "Well, no, I don't think she is."
"You ought to like her--she hates our movement!" And Verena asked,
further, numerous questions about the brilliant Adeline; whether he saw
her often, whether she went out much, whether she was admired in
New York, whether he thought her very handsome. He answered to the
best of his ability, but soon made the reflexion that he had not come out

to Monadnoc Place to talk about Mrs. Luna; in consequence of which,
to change the subject (as well as to acquit himself of a social duty), he
began to speak of Verena's parents, to express regret that Mrs. Tarrant
had been sick, and fear that he was not to have the pleasure of seeing
her. "She is a great deal better," Verena said; "but she's lying down; she
lies down a great deal when she has got nothing else to do. Mother's
very peculiar," she added in a moment; "she lies down when she feels
well and happy, and when she's sick she walks about--she roams all
round the house. If you hear her on the stairs a good deal, you can be
pretty sure she's very bad. She'll be very much interested to hear about
you after you have left."
Ransom glanced at his watch. "I hope I am not staying too long--that I
am not taking you away from her."
"Oh no; she likes visitors, even when she can't see them. If it didn't take
her so long to rise, she would have been down here by this time. I
suppose you think she has missed me, since I have been so absorbed.
Well, so she has, but she knows it's for my good. She would make any
sacrifice for affection."
The fancy suddenly struck Ransom of asking, in response to this, "And
you? would you make any?"
Verena gave him a bright natural stare. "Any sacrifice for affection?"
She thought a moment, and then she said: "I don't think I have a right to
say, because I have never been asked. I don't remember ever to have
had to make a sacrifice--not an important one."
"Lord! you must have had a happy life!"
"I have been very fortunate, I know that. I don't know what to do when
I think how some women--how most women--suffer. But I must not
speak of that," she went on, with her smile coming back to her. "If you
oppose our movement, you won't want to hear of the suffering of
women!"
"The suffering of women is the suffering of all humanity," Ransom

returned. "Do you think any movement is going to stop that--or all the
lectures from now to doomsday? We are born to suffer--and to