"To think that men are like that!" she said to herself; with a feeling of general distrust. "And Hilda, I have not a doubt, is at this moment breaking her heart for his sake. Poor girl, how I pity her! And yet I can easily see that this sorrow may be a blessing in disguise."
Aldyth scarcely spoke to Guy during the remainder of his visit, but Miss Lorraine continued to pet him, and his self-complacency showed no reduction.
[CHAPTER XXII.]
A STRICKEN HEROINE AND A SHAMELESS SUITOR.
"DO leave me to myself, Kitty; it is the only kindness you can do me now."
Hilda Bland was the speaker, and as she spoke, she turned her head on the pillow, so that her sister could see no more of her than a mass of loosened, disordered hair. Kitty stood by the bed holding a tray on which was set out a meal which might have tempted the most fastidious appetite. But Hilda would not so much as look at the dainty morsel of chicken, and Kitty's expression was a curious combination of pity and impatience.
"Really, Hilda, I cannot see any sense in starving yourself; you will not improve matters by falling ill."
"If I could only be ill enough," sighed Hilda; "if I could only die!"
"If you absolutely abstain from food, you will die," said Kitty, in a matter-of-fact tone; "but I should call it cowardly to put the extinguisher on yourself in that fashion, and it would be cruel to mother."
"It is easy for you to talk," murmured Hilda; "you have had no trouble; you do not know what it is to be deceived by one whom you loved and trusted. I feel that all happiness is over for me, and I can only drag out a hopeless, miserable existence. Do you wonder that I am sick of life?"