She looked confused and ashamed for a moment as she averted her eyes. "Well, you have read them," she then said. "And what must I think of your never alluding to these efforts of mine,—your never even mentioning your disapproval of them?"
"Could I have induced you to lay aside the pen?"
"No, no,—never!"
"That I knew, and therefore intended to say nothing until I should have the right to do so. Of course a sensible woman cleaves to her husband and does not isolate herself in special interests, even although in common with a keen sense of duty she possess great gifts, distinguished talent——"
"Which I of course do not," she interrupted him, bitterly.
"No, Flora; you have wit and intelligence, but no originality," he replied, gravely, shaking his head and resuming his usual calm manner of speaking.
For a few seconds she stood petrified by this simple sentence, evidently the result of entire conviction, and then, with a half-frantic mixture of affected merriment and unrepressed anger, she extended her arms. "Thank God, this puts an end to all hesitation, all uncertainty! I should have been a slave, a poor, down-trodden drudge, from whose soul the divine spark of poesy would have been torn—to light with it the kitchen fire."
She spoke too loudly. The sick girl, who had slumbered during the exchange of words in an even under-tone, opened her eyes wide and stared about her. The doctor hurried to the bedside; he gave her her medicine and gently laid his hand upon her forehead. Beneath his soothing touch the wild eyes closed again. Ah, could the poor sufferer have dreamed what a tempest she had invoked upon this man's head,—she who had hitherto done everything in her power to avert such a misfortune!
"I must seriously entreat you not to disturb your sister further," the doctor said, turning his head towards Flora as he bent over the bed, his hand still upon Henriette's forehead.
"I really have nothing more to say," Flora rejoined, with an unsuccessful attempt to smile, as she took her gloves from her pocket. "Everything is at an end between us, as, after your last offensive remarks, you must be perfectly aware. I am free——"