Read "The Mother's Recompense" by Edith Wharton online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"Miss Anne Clephane weds War Hero. Announces engagement to Major / Christopher Fenno, D. S. M., Chevalier of Legion of Honour."
The headline glared at Kate Clephane from the first page of the paper / she had absently picked up from the table of her sitting-room. She and / Anne, that morning, had journeyed back from Long Island in Hendrik / Drover's motor, separated by his genial bulk, and shielded by it from / the peril of private talk. On the day before -- that aching endless / Sunday -- Anne, when with her mother, had steadily avoided the point at / issue. She seemed too happy in their reunion to risk disturbing its / first hours; perhaps, Kate thought, she was counting on the spell of / that reunion to break down her mother's opposition. But as they neared / New York every mile brought them closer to the reality they were trying / not to see; and here it was at last, deriding the mother from those / hideous headlines. She heard Anne's step behind her, and their glance / crossed above the paragraph. A flush rose to the girl's cheek, while / her eyes hesitatingly questioned her mother.