"
The look of martyrdom faded slowly from her visitor's features. "You say
this because you know Stephen?"
"Because I know Stephen--and men," answered Corinna, while she thought
of John Benham. "Frankly, I think it would be a splendid thing for
Stephen to do. It would prove, you know, that he cared enough to make a
sacrifice. I think it would be splendid; but I think also that we are of
the breed that looks too long before it leaps. Our great adventures take
place in dreams or in talk. We like to play with forlorn hopes; but the
only forlorn hope we have actually embraced is the conservative
principle; and we couldn't let that go, even if we tried, because it is
bred in our bone. So I believe that the ^hereditary habit will drag
Stephen safely back before he rushes into danger. He may play with the
thought of Patty, but he will probably marry Margaret."
If Mrs. Culpeper's too refined features could have expressed passion, it
would have been the passion of thankfulness.
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