“When he had gone, she put that loving letter in the fire, and wrote another to the man she loved, not mentioning the letter she had seen, but merely saying that she never wished to see or hear of him again! I think, even then, she half hoped for some explanation from him, but none came. She was very miserable, Sydney.”
“I think she deserved to be!” Sydney cried. “Why, if she really cared for the man, how could she help believing in him?—all the more if things went against him. I don’t believe she loved him!”
She wondered as she spoke why her friend looked so white, even in the dancing fire-light.
“She did care, but not enough,” said Katharine Morrell, and there was a pause.
“Did she ever get to know?” asked Sydney, after waiting in vain for her to go on.
“Yes, by-and-by, when she had thought about it more, and grown older, and heard more about Sir Algernon. She felt sure then that the man she loved was innocent of that dishonourable action: that he could not have been guilty of it. And she guessed that Sir Algernon had given her the note to read on purpose that she might act as she did. He had set a trap for her, but she would not have fallen into it if she had only had more love and trust and patience.”
“When she knew, did she write to the man and tell him?” Sydney questioned earnestly.
“No, dear, she couldn’t. The man had given up caring, for one thing, you see. No, that is the end of the story! I am afraid there is no ‘lived happily ever after’ to finish this. I only tell you of it, because I want you to be warned against Sir Algernon.” There was a silence in the pretty room; then Katharine rose a little wearily. “Good-night, dear; don’t be worried by that girl’s story, which is all past and gone. Only be warned, as I wish she had been warned, against Sir Algernon.”
Sydney thought a good deal of Katharine’s words during the busy, happy day which followed, when she seemed plunged back for the time being into the merry Sydney of home. There was a Christmas-tree at the Hospital, and Sydney went with her friend and helped her take round the presents to the patients, and made the acquaintance of Miss Osric’s father, and enjoyed herself exceedingly.