" He smiled a little shyly.
"Rose has explained everything," he said, and Oliver looked at Mrs.
Severance with stupefied wonder--_how?_
"But even so, there remains the difficulty--of my putting myself into
words."
"Silly boy," said Mrs. Severance easily, and Oliver noted with fresh
amazement that the term seemed to come from her as naturally and almost
conventionally as if she had every legal American right to use it. "Let me,
dear." And Oliver felt his head begin to go round like a pinwheel.
But then--but she really _couldn't_ be married to Mr. Piper--and yet
somehow she seemed so much more married to him than Mrs. Piper ever had
been--Oliver's thoughts played fantastically for an instant over the
proposition that she and Mr. Piper had been secretly converted to
Mohammedanism together and he looked at Mr. Piper's grey head almost as
if he expected to see a large red fez suddenly drop down upon it from the
ceiling.
"No, Rose," and again Mr. Piper's voice was stately. "This is
my--difficulty. No matter how hard it may be."
"Of course I did not understand--how could I?--that Rose--was such a very
good friend of your sister's and all your family's.
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