“The one name is as disagreeable as the other, and the whole subject is disagreeable; and, in plain truth, I don’t care to talk any more about it.”
“Can I help you in anything this morning, mother?”
“No.”
“Then I will go to my room, and put away all the lovely things you bought me in London.”
“You had better do so. Your father is now possessed by one idea, and he will be wanting every pound to further it.”
“I think, too, mother, we have had our share.”
“Have you really nothing to tell me about Harry and yourself?”
“I could not talk of Harry this morning, mother. I think you may hear something from father tonight, that will make you understand.”
“Very well. That will be soon enough, if it is more trouble,” and though she spoke wearily, there was a tone of both pity and anxiety in her voice.
Indeed, it was only the fact of the late busy days of travel and change, and the atmosphere of a great reconstruction of their whole life and household, that had prevented Mistress Annis noticing, as she otherwise would have done, the pallor and sorrow in her daughter’s appearance. Not even the good fortune that had come to her father, could dispel the sickheartedness which had caused her to maintain a stubborn silence to all Harry’s pleas for excuse and pardon. Dick was his sister’s only confidant and adviser in this matter, and Dick’s anger had increased steadily. He was now almost certain that Harry deserved all the resentment honest love could feel and show towards those who had deceived and betrayed it. And the calamity that is not sure, is almost beyond healing. The soul has not forseen, or tried to prevent it. It has come in a hurry without credentials, and holds the hope of a “perhaps” in its hands; it may not perhaps be as bad as it appears; it may not perhaps be true. There may possibly be many mitigating circumstances yet not known. Poor Kitty! She had but this one sad circumstance to think about, she turned it a hundred ways, but it was always the same. However, as she trailed slowly up the long stairway, she said to herself—