When the child ran off she drew Cecil into their bedroom. The two girls sat down together on the bed, but Sigrid, usually the one to do most of the talking, was silent and dejected. Cecil saw at once that she must take the initiative.
“I have been longing to come and see you,” she said. “But yesterday was so filled up. Father and mother are so sorry for all this trouble, and are very much vexed that Mr. Horner has behaved badly about it.”
“They are very kind,” said Sigrid wearily. “Of course most employers would have prosecuted Frithiof, or, at any rate, discharged him.”
“But, Sigrid, what can be the explanation of it? Oh, surely we can manage to find out somehow! Who can have put the note in his pocket?”
“What!” cried Sigrid. “Do not you, too, hold Mr. Boniface’s opinion, and think that he himself did it unintentionally?”
“I!” cried Cecil passionately. “Never! never! I am quite sure he had nothing whatever to do with it.”
Sigrid flung her arms round her.
“Oh, how I love you for saying that!” she exclaimed.
It was the first real comfort that had come to her since their trouble, and, although before Frithiof she was brave and cheerful, in his absence she became terribly anxious and depressed. But with the comfort there came a fresh care, for something at that moment revealed to her Cecil’s secret. Perhaps it was the burning cheek, that was pressed to hers, or perhaps a sort of thrill in her companion’s voice as she spoke those vehement words, and declared her perfect faith in Frithiof.
The thought filled her with hot indignation against Blanche. “Has she not only spoilt Frithiof’s life, but Cecil’s too?” she said to herself. And in despair she looked on into the future, and back into the sad past. “If it had not been for Blanche he might have loved her—I think he would have loved her And oh! how happy she would have made him! how different his whole life would have been! But now, with disgrace, and debt, and broken health, all that is impossible for him. Blanche has robbed him, too, of the very power of loving; she has cheated him out of his heart. Her hateful flirting has ruined the happiness of two people, probably of many more, for Frithiof was not the only man whom she deceived. Oh! why does God give women the power to bring such misery into the world?”