"He thinks that you have no right to be here—I think you have now."
"Oh! Harriet, you do not think——"
"Hush! say nothing. You are your own mistress, and I am not angry with you. You have been too good a friend of mine, for me to envy any act of kindness towards him I loved once. I don't love him now."
"You said you did."
"A romantic fancy—I have been romantic from a child. It is all passed away now—remember that when he——"
"When he—what?"
"Asks you to be his wife, to become his natural protector; you alone can save him now from desolation—never my task—never now my wish. Good-bye."
She swept away coldly and proudly, leaving the amazed Mattie watching her departure. What did she mean?—what had Sidney said to her that she should go away like that, distrusting her and the motives which had brought her there—she, of all women in the world!
Mattie went back to Sidney's room excited and trembling. Close to his side before she startled him by her voice.
"Mr. Sidney, long ago you were proud of being straightforward in your speech—of telling the plain truth, without prevarication."