“Do you know the social and moral position of those men he has permitted to wait on you since your stay here? Do you know how he speaks of you to others? Dearest little friend, though you hate me for it, I must warn you. Frank does not love, does not even respect you. He only retains your love as a trophy of his power. As God knows my heart, I have no motive but to save you. Will you heed me, Lulie?”
She drew her hand quickly from mine, and, covering her face, remained silent a long while; then putting it back in mine, she said, with a sad earnestness I can never forget:
“I do not doubt the sincerity of your motives, John; but your words are wasted. Frank has loved me too long and too fondly for me to desert him now at your bidding. ‘Twas naughty of him, I know, to carry me into bad company, but he did it thoughtlessly, and I forgive him for it.”
“But, Lulie”—— I interposed.
“No; let’s not speak of it any further. You cannot know how strangely sad I feel. A great gloom has fallen on my heart, which, indeed, has been hanging over it since I came here; and oh—I do so want to lean on mother’s breast and cry. Dear John, I shall ever love you dearly for your kind interest in me,” and before I could prevent it she lifted my hand to her lips and kissed it; “but you are mistaken about Frank. I know that he loves me, and God knows that I love him, and will trust him even to death.”
We rose from our seats, but instead of returning to the ball room, she asked me to see her to the hotel, where I bade her good night and came back up the campus. As I passed by the seat we occupied, something white in the darkness caught my eye, and on picking it up I found that it was her glove, which she had dropped while we were talking. On taking it to the light I found that some one, in passing, had trodden upon it, and ground it into the damp earth, soiling it hopelessly.
“Heaven grant it may not be a type of her life!” I said fervently, as I laid it in my bosom.
[CHAPTER XXXIII.]
I concluded, after all, to go North. What if father, mother and Carlotta had travelled while I was studying in a quiet little village? I felt equal to them in learning, and resolved that I would be in manners and polish.