If only she could have a man
like Robert Gray, and have him on a piece of land of their own.
Kate was a girl, but no man of the Bates tribe ever was more
deeply bitten by the lust for land. She was the true daughter of
her father, in more than one way. If that very expensive hat was
going to produce the man why not let it begin to work from the
very start? If her man was somewhere, only waiting to see her,
and the hat would help him to speedy recognition, why miss a
change?
She thought over the year, and while she deplored the estrangement
from home, she knew that if she had to go back to one year ago,
giving up the present and what it had brought and promised to
bring, for a reconciliation with her father, she would not
voluntarily return to the old driving, nagging, overwork, and
skimping, missing every real comfort of life to buy land, in which
she never would have any part.
"You get your knocks 'taking the wings of morning,'" thought Kate
to herself, "but after all it is the only thing to do. Nancy
Ellen says Sally Whistler is pleasing Mother very well, why should
I miss my chance and ruin my temper to stay at home and do the
work done by a woman who can do nothing else?"
Kate moved her head slightly to feel if the big, beautiful hat
that sat her braids so lightly was still there.
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