Explore "Cope Absent from a Wedding" by Henry Blake Fuller on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Cope went out on the square with his being a-tingle. If Hortense, on another occasion, had thrown a dash of brine, on this occasion she had rubbed in the salt itself. And he had struck a harsh blow in turn; the flat of his mind was still stinging, as if half the shock of the blow had remained behind. "But it was no time for half-measures," he muttered to himself. "Not again; not twice! " he repeated.
Hortense remained for several days in a condition of sullen anger -- she was a cloud lit up by occasional unaccountable flashes of temper. "Whatever in the world is the matter with her? " asked her aunt in more directions than one. And Amy Leffingwell, blissfully busy over her little trousseau and her selection of china-patterns, protested and opened wide, inquiring blue eyes against the intrusion of such a spirit at such a joyous time.