The World of Chance by William Dean Howells

"You see," Ray said, "it's merely a fragment. " He wiped the perspiration / from his forehead.

"Of course," the girl answered, with a sigh. "Isn't disappointment / always fragmentary? " she asked, sadly.

"How do you mean?"

"Why, happiness is like something complete; and disappointment like / something broken off, to me. A story that ends well seems rounded; and / one that ends badly leaves you waiting, as you do just after some one / dies."

"Is that why you didn't like my story? " Ray asked, imprudently. He added / quickly, at an embarrassment which came into her face, "Oh, I didn't / mean to add to my offence! I came here partly to excuse it. I was too / persistent the other night."

"Oh, no!"

"Yes, I was. I had no right to an opinion from you. I knew it at the / time, but I couldn't help it. You were right to refuse. But you can tell / me how my poem strikes you. It isn't offered for publication!"

He hoped that she would praise some passages that he thought fine; but / she began to speak of the motive, and he saw that she had not missed / anything, that she had perfectly seized his intention. She talked to / him of it as if it were the work of some one else, and he said / impulsively, "If I had you to criticise my actions beforehand, I should / not be so apt to make a fool of myself."

Mrs. Denton came back. "I ran off toward the last. I didn't want to be / here when Peace began to criticise. She's so severe."

"She hasn't been at all severe this time," said Ray.

"I don't see how she could be," Mrs. Denton returned. "All that I heard / was splendid."

"It's merely a fragment," said Ray, with grave satisfaction in her / flattery.

"You must finish it, and read us the rest of it."

Ray looked at Peace, and something in her face made him say, "I shall / never finish it; it isn't worth it."

"Did Peace say that?"

"No."

Mrs. Denton laughed. "That's just like Peace. She makes other people say / the disagreeable things she thinks about them."

"What a mysterious power! " said Ray. "Is it hypnotic suggestion?"

He spoke lightly toward Peace, but her sister answered: "Oh, we're full / of mysteries in this house. Did you know that my husband had a Voice?"

"A voice! Is a voice mysterious?"