Valentine continued to pay many visits to Lady Wentworth.
There was so much in his hands to arrange for her in the winding up of Sir Mark’s estate, and his visits were always visits of business. But Polly did not even guess this.
CHAPTER XXI.
HER SISTER’S SECRET.
No, Polly knew nothing of what was true. It was not given to her to read into Valentine’s heart and see what was written there, and her own heart grew cold as she remembered how she had told herself once that this man was learning to care for her, when all the time he had cared for another, and that other Sister Christina.
It was a repetition of her story with Hubert Kestridge all over again, and Polly’s proud spirit winced.
Her life with Christina in the house was a torment to her now; gradually but surely, her courage flagged as it had never flagged before. The change was marked very visibly in her face.
“Yes,” she said one morning to Grace, when the latter had been questioning her, and insisting that she could not feel well, “yes, Grace, dear, you are right. I do feel ill. I suppose it is a kind of reaction. This has been such a sad year and there has been so much struggle and trouble. I would give, I don’t know what, to go away. I want to be in some big, fresh place. Grace, will you help me to get away? I—I—don’t think I can struggle on much more.”
Grace took the matter calmly into her own hands.
“When can you be ready? We will go together. Will that suit you? Or, better still, you shall go alone at the first, and I will join you. I know just how you feel, and I know that a change by yourself will do you all the good in the world. I know more than this—I know the very place for you. One of our old servants, who left us to be married, has set up a lodging house at Beachcroft. I will write and tell her you are coming. She will take all care of you, and you will love the place. It is small, and wild, and free, but it is just the place for you! Tell me, little Polly, will you go if I make all arrangements?”
Polly looked round her with big, pathetic eyes. Of late they had lost their sea-green brilliancy, these eyes, and looked gray only and very tired.