Beyond the Rocks

Theodora froze a little. Then she glanced at the widow's face and its

honest kindliness melted her.

"Yes, I have been anxious about him," she said, simply, "but he is

nearly well now, and we shall soon be going to England."

Mrs. McBride had not taken a companion on this drive for nothing, and

she obtained all the information she wanted during their tour in the

Bois. How Josiah Brown had bought a colossal place in the eastern

counties, and intended to have parties and shoot there in the autumn.

How Theodora hoped to see more of her sisters than she had done since

her marriage. The question of these sisters interested Mrs. McBride a

good deal.

For a man to have two unmarried daughters was rather an undertaking.

What were their ages--their habits--their ambitions? Theodora told her

simply. She guessed why she was being interrogated. She wished to assist

her father, and to say the truth seemed to her the best way. Sarah was

kind and humorous, while Clementine had the brains.

"And they are both dears," she said, lovingly, "and have always been so

good to me."

Mrs. McBride was a shrewd woman, full of American quickness, lightning

deduction, and a phenomenal insight into character. Theodora seemed to

her to be too tender a flower for this world of east wind. She felt sure

she only thought good of every one, and how could one get on in life if

one took that view habitually! The appallingly hard knocks fate would

give one if one was so trusting! But as the drive went on that gentle

something that seemed to emanate from Theodora, the something of pure

sweetness and light, affected her, too, as it affected other people. She

felt she was looking into a deep pool of crystal water, so deep that she

could see no bottom or fathom the distance of it, but which reflected in

brilliant blue God's sky and the sun.

"And she is by no means stupid," the widow summed up to herself. "Her

mind is as bright as an American's! And she is just too pretty and sweet

to be eaten up by these wolves of men she will meet in England, with

that unromantic, unattractive husband along. I must do what I can for

her."

By the time she had dropped Theodora at her hotel the situation was

quite clear. Of course the girl had been sacrificed to Josiah Brown; she

was sound asleep in the great forces of life; she was bound to be

hideously unhappy, and it was all an abominable shame, and ought to have

been prevented.