Which of these reports was it that had so powerfully affected Mr. Aylwinne? Florence’s jealous heart answered, “The first—the first!” for the injured girl was one of those fair sisters of whom Mrs. Wilson had spoken when the subject of his marriage was touched upon.
Would she die? Or would she recover and become his wife?
CHAPTER XVIII.
SUSPENSE.
For two or three days Florence could not resist secretly watching Mr. Aylwinne. He did not go to town, as she had expected he would, but he wrote several letters, and seemed unusually impatient for the arrival of the post. There was an inexplicable change, too, in his manner toward herself. Without actually avoiding her, he seemed to hold himself aloof, to address her with increased respect and consideration, and to lower his tones as if some great sympathy for her were striving within him.
Florence flushed to the temples as she imagined a reason for this. He had missed the newspaper, had guessed whose hand had abstracted it, and divined the feelings with which she had discovered his interest in its contents.
Ashamed to have so betrayed herself, she tried to appear careless and light-hearted, but succeeded so ill that even Aunt Margaret detected something amiss, and openly wondered what ailed her.
“I cannot understand that girl,” she said to Mr. Aylwinne confidentially. “I’m sure she has some secret she keeps from me, which is most ungenerous of her, for she knows how much I abhor mysteries and deceit.”
“Miss Heriton wants a change,” he answered abruptly. “She must go away from here, or she will have an illness. Take her to the seaside, Mrs. Blunden, and let my wards go with you. She will then have less time to be lonely and brood over her sorrows.”
“Sorrows!” Mrs. Blunden ejaculated, almost angrily. “Good gracious! Why, she has none; or, if she has, it’s very unthankful of her! She knows I shall make a provision for her future, whether she marries or remains single, and I’m neither exacting nor ill-natured. Sorrows indeed!”