The Girl on the Boat - Penn State University

“As if that could make any difference! What does
your outside matter? I have seen your inside!”
“I beg your pardon?”
“I mean ….”
Eustace fondled her back hair.
“Jane! Queen of my soul! Do you really love me?”
“I’ve loved you ever since we met on the Subway.”
She raised a tear-stained face. “If only I could be sure
that you really loved me!”
“I can prove it!” said Eustace proudly. “You know
how scared I am of my mother. Well, for your sake I
overcame my fear, and did something which, if she
ever found out about it, would make her sorer than a
sunburned neck! This house. She absolutely refused to
let it to old Bennett and old Mortimer. <strong>The</strong>y kept after
her about it, but she wouldn’t hear of it. Well, you told
me on the boat that Wilhelmina Bennett had invited
you to spend the summer with her, and I knew that, if
they didn’t come to Windles, they would take some
other place, and that meant I wouldn’t see you. So I
hunted up old Mortimer, and let it to him on the quiet,
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Girl</strong> on the Boat
178
without telling my mother anything about it!”
“Why, you darling angel child,” cried Jane Hubbard
joyfully. “Did you really do that for my sake? Now I
know you love me!”
“Of course, if mother ever got to hear of it …!”
Jane Hubbard pushed him gently into the nest of bedclothes,
and tucked him in with strong, calm hands.
She was a very different person from the girl who so
short a while before had sobbed on the carpet. Love is
a wonderful thing.
“You mustn’t excite yourself,” she said. “You’ll be getting
a temperature. Lie down and try to get to sleep.”
She kissed his bulbous face. “You have made me so
happy, Eustace darling.”
“That’s good,” said Eustace cordially. “But it’s going
to be an awful jar for mother!”
“Don’t you worry about that. I’ll break the news to
your mother. I’m sure she will be quite reasonable about
it.”
Eustace opened his mouth to speak, then closed it
again.