Kitty's cheeks burned. Flora fairly exulted in the girlish embarrassment which was so evident. "Yes, yes, the man may congratulate himself upon the charm which he unconsciously possesses, and which attracts female hearts as the light of a candle allures moths. The world will laugh to learn that all the daughters Mangold the banker left behind him succumbed to the spell. Stay!" She had spoken in what was almost a playful tone, until Kitty once more hastened towards the door, and then the authoritative word came like a command from her lips. The young girl paused as if rooted to the spot, for fear lest a louder repetition of the word might arouse her sleeping sister. "Even our youngest, the fair miller's maid, hardy of limb and strong in soul, has proved weak," Flora continued. "Oh, you may protest as you please, with that defiant air and that pitiable pretence of offended pride. Well, I will believe you; you can clear your name, if you will retract the eulogium you pronounced upon Bruck just now with such incomparable emphasis——"
"I do not retract one iota!"
"Do you not see, wicked girl, that you are bound hand and foot in the fetters of your sinful love? Look in my eyes! Can you look your betrayed sister in the face and say 'No'?"
Kitty raised her bowed head and looked back over her shoulder; she put her hand up to the wound in her forehead, which was beginning to throb, but it was done mechanically; even if her life-blood had been streaming from it, she would hardly have heeded it at this moment, when thought and feeling were concentrated upon one point. "You have no right to require from me an answer to such a question," she said, firmly, although her heart throbbed loud and fast; "and I am not bound to reply to you. But you have called me wicked, and have spoken of treachery; these are the very words with which I reproached myself until I understood the true nature of the affection which you call sinful——"
"Ah, a confession after the most approved style!"
A soft smile played about the pale lips; the face, white it seemed as the bandage about the brow, was transfigured for the moment. "Yes, Flora, I confess, because I have no cause for shame. I confess too for our dead father's sake. I will not, in view of that dear memory, bear upon my soul even the appearance of treachery towards one of my sisters. We are not responsible for our feelings, but for the power that we allow them; this I know after a fruitless struggle with a mysterious affection, which seems to have been born with me, to have been present with me always, though slumbering. Is it a crime to approach reverently another's domestic altar? Is it a crime to look up gladly at a tree growing in another's garden? Is it a crime to love and not covet? I desire nothing of you; I shall never cross your path or your lover's. You shall never hear of me again; you need never even remember me. How can it harm either of you that I shall love him while I have breath, and be faithful to him as to one taken from me by death?"
A low laugh interrupted her. "Take care, child! In a moment your rhapsody will clothe itself in rhyme."
"No, Flora, that I leave to you, although I know that my whole conception of life has been more exalted since this affection has had lodgment in my heart." She stepped back into the room, past the stand upon which hung the wedding gown. Without knowing it, she brushed by the hanging train, and, with a low rustle, the whole silken fabric fell upon the floor.
Kitty stooped to raise it, but Flora pushed the satin scornfully aside with her foot. "Let it lie!" she said, bitterly. "Even the lifeless stuff rebels against a sister's treachery."
"And are you free from blame, Flora?" Kitty asked. Her blood was easily roused; her sense of justice was strong, and not even for the sake of peace would she submit to the persistent injustice of wayward egotism. "What was it that first filled my heart? Sympathy, unutterable sympathy for the noble man whom you misunderstood, whom you reviled to the world, and from whom you struggled to be free. If all this were not wrong, why did you ask forgiveness? I have seen you penitent—— When you threw the ring into the river——"