He -- he 's as full of jokes as ever . I wished you 'd been here . '' This was a fib . Cecily knew it . `` I do n't , then , '' she said contemptuously . `` You know I never had much use for Cromwell Biron . I think he had a face of his own to come down here to see you uninvited , after the way he treated you . '' Lucy Ellen blushed scorchingly and was miserably silent . `` He 's changed terrible in his looks , '' went on Cecily relentlessly . `` How bald he 's got -- and fat ! To think of the spruce Cromwell Biron got to be bald and fat ! To be sure , he still has the same sheepish expression . Will you pass me the currant jell , Lucy Ellen ? '' `` I do n't think he 's so very fat , '' she said resentfully , when Cecily had left the table . `` And I do n't care if he is . '' Twenty years before this , Biron had jilted Lucy Ellen Foster . She was the prettiest girl in Oriental then , but the new school teacher over at the Crossways was prettier , with a dash of piquancy , which Lucy Ellen lacked , into the bargain . Cromwell and the school teacher had run away and been married , and Lucy Ellen was left to pick up the tattered shreds of her poor romance as best she could . She never had another lover . She told herself that she would always be faithful to the one love of her life .
This sounded romantic , and she found a certain comfort XXXXX it .
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