Page 488 - LITTLE WOMEN

Little Women

What those two creatures did in her absence, she never
knew, but Mr. scott was not taken ‘up to Mother’s’, and
when Meg descended, after they had strolled away
together, she found traces of a promiscuous lunch which

filled her with horror. Lotty reported that they had eaten
‘a much, and greatly laughed, and the master bid her
throw away all the sweet stuff, and hide the pots.’
Meg longed to go and tell Mother, but a sense of
shame at her own short comings, of loyalty to John, ‘who
might be cruel, but nobody should know it,’ restrained
her, and after a summary cleaning up, she dressed herself
prettily, and sat down to wait for John to come and be
forgiven.
Unfortunately, John didn’t come, not seeing the matter
in that light. He had carried it off as a good joke with
Scott, excused his little wife as well as he could, and
played the host so hospitably that his friend enjoyed the
impromptu dinner, and promised to come again, but John
was angry, though he did not show it, he felt that Meg
had deserted him in his hour of need. ‘It wasn’t fair to tell
a man to bring folks home any time, with perfect freedom,
and when he took you at your word, to flame up and
blame him, and leave him in the lurch, to be laughed at or
pitied. No, by George, it wasn’t! And Meg must know it.’

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