'Ah!'
She had never heard such a sigh from him. In amaze she said, 'They are so good. I thought great troubles made little differences be forgotten.'
'True! It is their genuine goodness that makes me fear.'
'If that made her quite—in earnest?' asked Stella.
'I wish Mr. Fulmort could have come before Monday!' ejaculated Clement. 'She's past me!'
Then it struck him that he was talking to little Stella as to a woman, and looking to see whether she had become one, he saw new depths in her eyes. 'Well, Stella, if she deserts I must trust to you,' he said. 'Have you seen much of her state of mind?'
'Not much,' said Stella. 'I think,' and her eyes filled with tears, 'that it is so much worse for her than for any of us—that she is like one bruised all over, who can't bear the least touch, and it comes on her all the more to-day, because she has been occupied by Felix hitherto, and now he wants her less.'
'But is not she specially unkind to you, Stella?'
'Oh! don't call it that. I believe she can't bear to see me, because I put her so in mind of dear Baby.' And the bright tears dropped.
The simple-hearted child had no idea of any deeper and more personal cause of irritation; nor was it possible to pursue the subject, for whereas the innocent's entrance to Paradise was not to cost the central feast of the Christian year one wreath, Angela's defection threw much toil upon her. The funeral was to be late on the Saturday afternoon, for the convenience of poor Yates's friends; and all must be finished before, with the help of Bernard, Lance, and Will Harewood, who had come down, like the brother he was, and was a welcome assistant to Clement, just as Angela's secession seemed like the last straw that would break the camel's back!