Her voice had failed to a sobbing whisper, and the diaphanous
cambric veiled her bowed face.
Frederic Chilton did not stir a finger or attempt to speak for a
full minute, but in that minute he thought a volume, felt acutely.
This, then, was what he had been doing in his hours of relaxation
from the business which had occupied his mind to the banishment of
nearly every other consideration; that had driven into comparative
obscurity the old gnawing grief which had incorporated itself with
his being! The intimacy with a beautiful, sprightly girl had been a
holiday diversion to him after arduous brain-labor, recreation
sought conscientiously and systematically, that his mental powers
might be clearer and fresher for the next day's toil in court and
among perplexing records; in hunting up titles and disputed
property, and proving their validity. He had gained the cause that
had brought him to the capital, and cost him so much fatigue and
anxiety, and was proud of his success. But what of this other piece
of work? Would not the most cold-blooded flirt, who ever prated of
fidelity, when he meant betrayal and desertion, blush to father this
business? And she, poor, guileless lamb, must bear the pain, the
mortification, perhaps the contumely, which ought to be his in
seven-fold measure!
"Stay, Rosa!" he said, huskily, when she attempted to rise. "Do not
leave me yet. I may not be altogether so unworthy, so basely callous
as I have given you reason to suppose. Can it be that I have
misconstrued what you have said, or do you really care that our
separation is so near? I had not thought of this."
"I understand." She lowered her flag of distress and confronted him
sorrowfully, not in resentment. "You believed me incapable of deep
and lasting feeling; saw in me no more than the world does, a giddy
coquette, feather-haired and shallow-hearted. Be it so. Perhaps it
is best that you should not be undeceived. Such injustice and
prejudice are the penalties a woman must suffer who wears a tinsel
cloak over her finer affections--admits but few, sometimes but one,
to her sanctum sanctorum. The gushing, loving, extensively-loving
class fare better. You have been very kind and attentive to me in my
strangerhood here, Mr. Chilton. I must always revert to your conduct
with gratitude. By the way"--a hysterical laugh breaking into her
dignified acknowledgment of benefits received--"that is the same,
in substance, that you said to me a while ago, isn't it? So we are
even--owe each other nothing."
"Except to love one another." The solemn accents hushed her reckless
prattle. "Rosa, can you learn this lesson?"