But any man could have forgiven mistakes from such dimpled lips in such a sweet voice . He asked her to go for a row up the river in the twilight and she assented ; she handled an oar very well , he found out , and the exercise became her . Winslow tried to get her to talk about herself , but failed signally and had to content himself with Mrs. Pennington 's meagre information . He told her about himself frankly enough -- how he had had fever in the spring and had been ordered to spend the summer in the country and do nothing useful until his health was fully restored , and how lonesome it was in Riverside in general and at the Beckwith farm in particular . He made out quite a dismal case for himself and if Nelly was n't sorry for him , she should have been . * * * * * At the end of a fortnight Riverside folks began to talk about Winslow and the Penningtons ' hired girl . He was reported to be `` dead gone '' on her ; he took her out rowing every evening , drove her to preaching up the Bend on Sunday nights , and haunted the Pennington farmhouse . Wise folks shook their heads over it and wondered that Mrs. Pennington allowed it . Winslow was a gentleman , and that Nelly Ray , whom nobody knew anything about , not even where she came from , was only a common hired girl , and he had no business to be hanging about her . She was pretty , to be sure ; but she was absurdly stuck-up and would n't associate with other Riverside `` help '' at all . Well , pride must have a fall ; there must be something queer about her when she was so awful sly as to her past life . Winslow and Nelly did not trouble themselves in the least over all this gossip ; in fact , they never even heard it . Winslow was hopelessly in love , when he found this out he was aghast . He thought of his father , the ambitious railroad magnate ; of his mother , the brilliant society leader ; of his sisters , the beautiful and proud ; he was honestly frightened . It would never do ; he must not go to see Nelly again . He kept this prudent resolution for twenty-four hours and then rowed over to the West shore . He found Nelly sitting on the bank in her old faded print dress and he straightway forgot everything he ought to have remembered . Nelly herself never seemed to be conscious of the social gulf between them . At least she never alluded to it in any way , and accepted Winslow 's attentions as if she had a perfect right to them . She had broken the record by staying with Mrs. Pennington four weeks , and even the cats were in subjection .
Winslow was well enough to have gone back to the city and , XXXXX fact , his father was writing for him .
At between in on out over that to until with